Year: 2017

Building upon our successes

The end of the semester offers a great opportunity to reflect on the progress we’ve made in advancing scientific discovery and scholarship at Clemson University, while taking stock of opportunities that will help us maintain momentum into 2018 and beyond.

Several opportunities will be available to you this spring through the university’s R-Initiatives programs:

• Funding to help research teams compete for high-value external grants
• Funding for equipment purchases and upgrades
• Grants to hire research faculty and postdoctoral fellows
• And grants to fund the completion or initiation of research projects.

R-Initiatives foster cross-disciplinary, team-focused research and lay a foundation for future success with support for faculty and infrastructure investments to make that work possible. In the last fiscal year, a quarter of Clemson faculty participated in R-Initiative applications and nearly $1.5 million was invested in research on prenatal care, computational genomics, dietary therapy for gluten sensitivities, childhood education, emotional expressions, painting in the digital age, and much more. A list of last year’s recipients is posted within each grant program on the R-Initiatives webpage.

I greatly appreciate the participation in our R-Initiatives. I look forward to seeing more applications this spring and learning about the achievements supported by this funding. I encourage you take a moment to learn about the R-Initiatives and begin to plan your proposal.

The Division of Research is working to enhance the quality of scholarly endeavors and growth of research programs with direct input from faculty. The newly created Research Advisory Board (RAB) held its first meeting in November. The board will provide input on a range of matters affecting research and scholarship at Clemson. I value input from faculty and thank our advisory members for their involvement. I would like to introduce the RAB members and I ask that you engage with them on matters affecting research at Clemson.  Share ideas and constructive and innovative suggestions for improvements. The board will meet monthly, with members serving three-year terms. Research Advisory Board members, selected by their colleges, are:

• Andy Wesolek, University Libraries
• Antonis Katsiyannis, College of Education
• Brian Powell, College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences
• Christopher Parkinson, College of Science
• Edmond Bowers, College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences
• Lawrence Fredendall, College of Business
• Lee Morrissey, College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities
• Sarah White, College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences

During the break, I hope you will spend some time catching up on some of the exciting research news happening across our campuses:

• Two faculty members from the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences received a national award for their work on water use.

• A team of researchers in the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities was recognized for their work to conceptualize a safer, more ergonomic hospital operating room.

• As part of an industry partnership, the Clemson University Energy Innovation Center in North Charleston was chosen as the test site of the world’s most powerful wind turbine.

• In January, a doctoral student in the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences will travel to Guinea for extensive research made possible by a Fulbright Research Award.

• Researchers in the College of Business have made new links to the role of politics in the workforce.

• The College of Education is developing the state’s first university-led, research-based teacher residency program aimed at improving teacher retention and student achievement.

• An assistant professor in the College of Science recently shared a story of the discovery of learning behaviors in non-human primates.

These are just a few of the great accomplishments and fascinating work done by our faculty at Clemson. You can read more online here.

Congratulations to all of you on another successful semester. Have a happy and safe holiday season.

Go Tigers!

Tanju

Create. Collaborate. Impact.

This is our motto at the Division of Research. Solutions to complex global problems require new knowledge created by collaborative, interdisciplinary teams of scientists with unique perspectives and ideas. We are building these teams at Clemson. I want to thank everyone who is engaging in collaborative research, seeking new discoveries, and working to make Clemson a leader in transformational research.

Funding agencies are rewarding our collaborative efforts:

• Clemson joins a team of researchers at nine other universities in the new MADE in SC program supported by a recent $20 million federal grant. The Clemson team, led by Dr. Raj Bordia, will support education at all levels and will develop materials for next generation computing systems, materials that can self-heal, and biomaterials that can interact with the human body to improve health care outcomes. Six academic departments at Clemson alone are part of the project.

• In another grant, a Clemson team led by Dr. Sarah Harcum received $6 million to lead researchers in three states on a project that seeks lower-cost treatments for some of the world’s most debilitating ailments. At Clemson, the project involves faculty from bioengineering, sociology and anthropology, and genetics and biochemistry.

• In a $2 million federal grant received this year, faculty from engineering will work with colleagues in psychology and education to reimagine the training of civil engineers in a way that allows students to work on projects with real-world impact. The endeavor, led by Drs. James R. Martin and Sez Atamturktur, will result in a national model of engineering curriculum.

This kind of interaction among academic disciplines is critical to impactful research that meets the evolving societal needs of the 21^st Century. To facilitate more of this interdisciplinary collaboration, the Office of Research Development and I invite faculty from all colleges to participate in the formulation of a proposal to become an Engineering Research Center with the National Science Foundation. I want to thank everyone for participating in our first ERC meeting and encourage you all to remain engaged or to attend an upcoming ERC event if you haven’t already. We need researchers from across humanities, social sciences, science and engineering to bring their ideas to this process. For more information, watch this video. Please come meet your colleagues from across campus and begin sharing ideas for transformational research. Or, if you have a major interdisciplinary research project in mind, share your ideas with me at vpr@clemson.edu.

I also encourage you to attend the first event of the ORD Speaker Series created to provide valuable insight on working successfully with the National Science Foundation. These events will give you the tools to become more competitive on grant proposals. This is one of many events ORD is planning to provide useful resources to faculty. A series of CAREER Academy workshops for junior faculty begin Nov. 10. Check the ORD website for information on these events and other opportunities.

As we work to become a perennial Carnegie R-1 institution, we have added a number of R-Initiatives to mentor young faculty, graduate more doctorates, fund more research, increase our competitiveness for large grants of global significance, and promote collaboration across all of Clemson’s campuses. I want to thank everyone for the strong participation in these programs. In 2016-2017, more than one-quarter of Clemson faculty participated as PIs or Co-PIs in the first round of internal funding opportunities – an investment of about $1.5 million – available through R-1 initiatives. Additionally, we awarded $170,000 through our Doctoral Dissertation Completion Awards program, which provides financial support to students as they complete their dissertations. I am excited for these promising students to receive their doctorates in May 2018.

I look forward to your participation in our R-1 Initiatives this spring and hope to see you at an ERC meeting or another upcoming event. Let’s keep the momentum going!

Go Tigers!

Tanju

A Year of Historic Events

This has been a historic year to remember in many respects for Clemson. In January, our football team won the NCAA Division I Football Championship, a truly remarkable accomplishment. A couple of weeks ago, the total eclipse over Clemson was another historic event; more than 50,000 people shared the eclipse on campus with us. It was more than an eclipse, it was a day to celebrate science and art – our art students had their own impressive displays of work.  I applaud Amber Porter. Just last year Amber received her PhD in astronomy from Clemson. She was charged with organizing events for the eclipse while still a student. She reached out to the community with trips to schools, media interviews and as many opportunities as possible to present Clemson’s plans. Thanks to Dr. Porter, Mark Leising and Jim Melvin in the College of Science, for their many efforts to present Clemson, and Clemson Research, as champions.

From a research point of view, FY 17 was a record-breaking year for Clemson in several research metrics. Here are a few of them:

• New proposal submissions reached $561M, the highest in the past five fiscal years and a 45% increase compared to FY13 ($386 M),
• Large proposal submissions (more than $1M) totaled 116, the highest in the past five fiscal years and a 75% increase compared to FY13 (66 submissions),
• New research awards totaled $109M, the highest in the past five fiscal years and a 37% increase compared to FY13 ($78M),
• Research expenditures were $89M, the highest in the past five fiscal years and a 12% increase as compared to FY13 ($75M),
• Junior faculty received 7 new CAREER awards, the highest in the past five fiscal years and a 75% increase compared to FY13 (4 awards).

Congratulations to you all. This is a testament to the quality and hard work of our faculty, students, and staff, showing their caliber and character as members of a Carnegie R1 University.

In order to build on this momentum, to continue strengthening our research enterprise, and to become a perennial Carnegie R1 institution, I am pleased to announce the formation of the new Office of Research Development in the Division of Research. Dr. Sez Atamturktur, an engineer and a leader among our faculty, will serve as the director of this office and the Assistant Vice President for Research Development. You can read more about this new office and Sez’s role here.

Sez has proven time and again that she knows how to build collaborative networks and bring complex, comprehensive grants to Clemson that establish us as a place of excellence. She will build the resources necessary to make us competitive, and she will mentor faculty to build long-term success over the course of their careers.

During the past year, I have been working with the Faculty Senate to form the VP of Research Advisory Board. This board will provide me direct faculty input to enhance the quality of scholarly endeavors and growth of our research programs. Colleges were asked to determine their nominees and forward their names to me by September 15. I look forward to working with this group in the new academic year.

This is very exciting and promising progress for Clemson research, scholarship and impact, which should make us very proud and encourage us to accomplish much more. Thanks for all you do to support this endeavor.

Go Tigers !

Tanju

Dear Colleagues,

A May to remember!

May was a very busy month in many respects. First, it was my pleasure to be among the stage members during commencements and the Ph.D. hooding ceremony. I enjoyed every minute of them. Congratulations to all our new graduates and to you as their mentors and educators!

Then, we held our second annual Research Symposium.

As vice president for Research, my most significant role is supporting the great works by our faculty, students and staff. The symposium offers the Clemson Research Family the opportunity to showcase important work, to celebrate each other and to tend the fertile fields of innovation with fresh ideas and perspectives.

Judging by the number of submissions, the event was more than twice as popular as last year’s. The committee, led by Associate Dean for Research in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences Joe Culin, received 125 submissions, compared to 60 in 2016. We heard from this year’s Three Minute Thesis winners, Shakira Hobbs, Lauren Garcia and Guneet Bedi. They are impressive students, and they are an encouraging indication for the future of research.  Pictures from the event are available on the research symposium webpage.

We are fortunate to have the Watt Family Innovation Center where we can host events, especially when we host representatives from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy. We were also very pleased that representatives from our legislators’ offices attended. Congressional support, at the state and federal level, is vital to the success of our research enterprise. It is heartening to see our elected officials engaged in what we’re doing to build the economy and improve society.

The symposium also provided the opportunity to highlight the Research component of the ClemsonForward strategic plan. Presentations were divided into our priority areas – advanced materials; cyberinfrastructure and big-data science; energy, transportation and advanced materials; health innovations; human resilience; and the sustainable environment.

At the beginning of the symposium I had the pleasure of showing videos that highlight two groups of researchers. The video highlights recent winners of large grant awards. You can view that video here.

K.C. Chang in the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences (CECAS), received a $2.3 million grant from the NSF. K.C. and Ron Gimble, in the College of Behavioral, Social and Health Sciences, are developing voice-recognition software for use during initial medical care on the battlefield. Alex Feltus in the College of Science received a $3 million grant from the NSF. Alex and Melissa Smith in CECAS are leading efforts to test scalable analysis of big data. Feng Luo, also in CECAS, received a $4.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to breed orange trees resistant to a bacteria that has wiped out 70 percent of the U.S. orange industry in recent years.

The second video highlighted this year’s CAREER Award winners. Their research span the gamut, from virtual reality communications to materials that promote or inhibit ice formation. You can view the CAREER Awards video here.

The new additions bring all the CAREER award winners in the University to about 60. We highlight all the winners at the following link: http://www.clemson.edu/research/awards/

Please join me in congratulating all these researchers.

After the symposium, I headed to DC to join a group of the presidents of AAU, APLU, and representatives from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Council on Governmental Relations, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the University of South Carolina. We met with the staff of the Office of Management and Budget at the White House, and as a unified group, we presented the importance of federal funding and F&A for research and development at the higher education institutions. My office and the offices of VP for External Affairs and Governmental Affairs will continue to work together throughout the year to provide important information and facts about the research funding to key administration officials and members of Congress.

I wish you all a productive and enjoyable summer!

Go Tigers!

Tanju

Celebrating CAREERs and postdocs

Spring has come early to Clemson’s beautiful campus. The color is returning after the mild winter drained it briefly. The gingko trees are unfurling their fresh, chartreuse leaves; yellow dandelions are poking through the grass and at the Musser Fruit Research Center the rolling hills are bathed in the light pink of peach blossoms – it’s easy on the eyes but not so good for the peaches.

With newness springing up around us, it’s a good time to celebrate two activities focused on young researchers: the Faculty Early Career Development Program referred to as CAREER awards and a new Office for Post-doctoral Affairs.

Notable careers

The CAREER awards are among the most prestigious grants given to young researchers by the NSF, NASA, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force and other federal agencies. It took three attempts for me to receive a CAREER Award. I learned more about proposal preparation and writing each time I applied, finally realizing that it’s a proposal that needs to be worked on continuously through the year to be perfected.

I encourage all eligible junior faculty to use all their available chances to apply. Beyond the prestige, the awards bring steady funding for about five years, removing a little bit of the pressure of research funding and allowing more time for actually doing research.

At the time of this writing, seven Clemson faculty are CAREER Award winners:

• Marissa Porter in Psychology received one of the very few awards given for social science research, building on her work to identify the best cohesion-building interventions for groups.
• Sophie Joerg in the School of Computing will use her award to perfect complex hand and finger movements in animation so virtual reality can include an important component of communication.
• Luiz Jacobsohn in Materials Science and Engineering is enhancing ways to identify short-term and long-term radiation exposure.
• Sapna Sarupria in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering is studying materials that promote or inhibit the freezing process for water.
• Amin Khademi in Industrial Engineering is applying his expertise to the pharmaceutical development process, using data to get drugs approved safer and faster.
• Mishra Ashok in Civil Engineering is improving forecast methods for extreme drought conditions so water resources can be optimally managed.
• Simona Onori in Automotive Engineering will use her award to examine lithium-ion battery function and lifespan to find the best battery system configurations for use in the automotive, healthcare, aerospace and defense sectors.

We have posted online a list of all Clemson CAREER Award winners – those with active awards and those whose awards came years ago – so that junior faculty can seek them out for potential mentoring. You can see them at Clemson.edu/research/awards.

Post-doctoral Researchers

This month, the Division of Research launched the new Office of Postdoctoral Affairs to address the specific needs of postdoctoral scholars. The office is an investment in postdoc culture, providing professional development and training that foster fulfilling careers.

We also aim to build a sense of community among all postdoc scholars, who occupy an often-overlooked space between students and faculty. I have advised about 20 postdocs during my career. Their hard work and novel ideas have made significant impacts in my research program. Postdocs are a vital resource to a research university, and they contributions are felt beyond a research group, to include the university environment and the community. They also become our colleagues very soon.

Our new Office of Postdoctoral Affairs will collaborate with Clemson’s Postdoctoral Association to identify  and address the needs of our postdocs across campus, and we hope this resource will attract more postdocs to Clemson. Please visit Clemson.edu/research/post-docs for more information.

Please join me in congratulating our CAREER Award winners and celebrating our postdoctoral scholars. The Clemson Family is very proud of all your contributions.

Go Tigers!

Tanju

Dear Colleagues,

As some of you may know, I came to the United States in 1989 from Turkey to pursue graduate studies at the University of Michigan. Coming to America was an opportunity to fulfill professional and personal dreams in a country where the federal government valued science and engineering, and scholarship was apolitical.

In July 2016, a coup attempt in Turkey caused flights into and out of the country to be temporarily banned. This happened to be during a time I planned to visit my family there. My wife had arrived in Turkey before the coup attempt, and I was scheduled to arrive a few days later. After some delays, I was able to travel, but this was the first time I felt nervous and uncertain while heading to visit my family. Suddenly, being an American did not assure the freedom to travel to my home.

Several weeks ago, when immigrants who legally lived and worked in the United States were denied entry back into the country from overseas, I empathized with their fears and frustrations. And when our own alumna, Nazanin Zinouri, was not allowed to return to her home here, I felt the crisis personally.

Diversity and inclusion are hallmarks of American higher education, and especially of major research universities like Clemson. Our different races, cultures and religions make our campus a nexus of global perspectives. We are a tapestry of diverse threads, and we are stronger, more vibrant and more complex because of it. Whether our goals are to understand our value as human beings through literature, redefining transportation, conserving energy or understanding the genetics of agricultural crops – our research is more innovative and more valuable when our researchers reflect the world we serve.

After my first year as vice president of research, I am in awe of your dedication, your depth and your devotion to searching for understanding, and how that translates into educating generations who, very soon, will become our leaders. Clemson researchers are currently contributing to 1,200 active projects worth about $300 million.

This year, Clemson is on track to submit research proposals valued at more than $600 million. We also have significantly increased the number of grants awarded in the amount of $2 million or more, further confirming the caliber and success of Clemson faculty’s thinking about big, multidisciplinary, translational projects with proportional impacts. And, we are on track for the second year in a row to top $100 million in competitive research funding.

As Clemson’s research enterprise grows, let’s remember the value each of us brings to the whole. Our tapestry, with its weft of education and warps of innovation, discovery and scholarship, colored with diverse backgrounds, enriches the value we offer to our disciplines and our students. Every thread of our tapestry has merit, every thread is necessary to make us who we are.

Go Tigers!

Tanju

Dear Colleagues,

What a wonderful way to start 2017, with a national championship! Congrats to the football team, the coaches and all the other staff and students who made that possible.

Having a national championship is meaningful in so many ways. It boosts the morale for the entire Clemson Family and gives us something to be proud of – especially considering our star quarterback and several other players graduated just weeks before playing their last game. The win can also be inspirational and aspirational.

ClemsonForward set our aspirational goal: to be a major national research university.

Today we are announcing one of the first pieces of the plan to be put into play: more than $1 million in seed grants from the Division of Research to support individual faculty, teams of faculty and to invest in new equipment.

These grants, which will be awarded through a competitive process, will help prepare our research team to be perennial national players, by making us more competitive for research funding, more attractive to our outstanding faculty, staff and students, and more compelling for prospective faculty, staff and students.

The funds will be awarded in five categories:

Clemson Faculty Succeeds positions interdisciplinary faculty teams to successfully compete for significant external funding ($1.5 million or more) that will enhance the stature and distinction of the university in all key areas of research, scholarship and creative activities at Clemson University. It provides seed grants that support leading-edge research and scholarship that capitalizes on the existing intellectual capital at Clemson. Preference is given to projects that are multi-disciplinary, inter-institutional and that advance the ClemsonForward strategic innovation clusters: advanced materials; cyber infrastructure and big data science; energy, transportation and advanced manufacturing; human resilience; health innovation; and the sustainable environment.

The sole goal for each funded CU Faculty Succeeds grant is the successful submission of significant external research proposals.

Clemson Research Fellows provides grants to assist regular faculty, academic departments, centers and institutes in the hiring and training of qualified research faculty and post-doctoral researchers. Researchers may be hired to promote collaborative and creative interdisciplinary activities, research and demonstration projects, build a center or program or pursue a large funding opportunity. These grants may run for a maximum of two years; at the end of the two-year period, the researcher position is expected to be fully supported by the externally funded grants or the department. 

Clemson Major Research Instrumentation provides financial support to researchers for the purchase of major research equipment or to replace or upgrade major research equipment that will likely impact funding, scholarship and research productivity, and the probability of increased extramural funding. The equipment will have a useful life of at least five years and cost more than $50,000.

Clemson Seed provides two tiers of funding support to eligible Clemson faculty in either the initiation of research activities or the completion of a scholarly project or product. Priority consideration is given to faculty who may not have large start-up packages or significant financial research support and resources. Initiation activities can include establishing baseline data, completing a phase of a research project that will lead to greater funding opportunities or developing research partnerships with collaborators at other institutions.

In Tier-1 awards, projects or products for completion can include finalizing peer-reviewed publications, scholarly books, chapters in books, or showings as in the case of the visual and performing arts.

Tier-2 initiation awards must include a proposal to an external funding agency as one of its deliverables. This program replaces the University Research Grants Committee (URGC) proposal call.

NSF Engineering Research Centers awards small grants to assist eligible Clemson faculty teams in pursuit of funding from the National Science Foundation ERC program. Successful proposals will bring together multiple partners engaging in large-scale, long-term innovative, transformative and complex projects. The outcomes of the program are the successful submission of pre-proposals and full proposals, if invited, to the NSF.

For details, guidelines and instructions for applying go to the R-Initiatives web page.

With these initiatives and support, and future components of ClemsonForward, the Tigers football team won’t be the only champions: Clemson will excel and succeed in research and scholarship at the national level.

Go Tigers!

Tanju

December 2016

A gift of discovery
The holiday season is one of giving, and this year I am pleased to present the gift of discovery: a new online tool that lets anyone search for potential research collaborators at Clemson by topic or name, enhancing interdisciplinary research and scholarship activities across our institution.

The Research Expertise Discovery Suite, or REDS, is an online portal that displays networks of Clemson faculty connected by topics. It also lists publications, conference presentations, awards, grants and books.

For example, if you want to know who does psychology research with military or former military members, searching for those terms will result in a constellation graphic that shows you numerous researchers and their connections. Furthermore, Heidi Zinzow, Mary Anne Raymond, Cynthia Pury and Thomas Britt have worked together. By clicking on a faculty member’s name you can see a list of their recent publications to determine whose work would be most relevant to yours.

REDS is just one tool designed to propel Clemson toward its strategic goal of growing our reputation as a national research university. I hope you will find it useful. Please note that we released the very first version of REDS, and we will continue to develop and improve to make a valuable resource.

Finally, thank you all for your contributions to Clemson Research in 2016. It has been an exciting year for us, with record funding, record-setting gifts, newly organized colleges and significant contributions to the sciences, engineering, humanities and education. We have also extended our contributions beyond our campuses to the wellbeing and growth of South Carolina’s agriculture, advanced manufacturing and knowledge-based economies.

Thanks to all of our faculty, students and staff, Clemson will enter 2017 well prepared to increase our impact and move Clemson forward across the state, the nation and beyond.

Please note that we released the very first version of REDS, and we will continue to develop and improve to make a valuable resource.

Go Tigers!

Tanju