USC TimeSA publication for faculty, staff and friends of the university

Aiken BeAUforT ColUmBiA lAnCASTer SAlkehATChie SUmTer Union UpSTATe

University of South Carolina September 20, 2012

uscTIMEsStories, snippets & scenes from the University of South Carolina.

Aiken / BeAufort / ColumBiA / lAnCAster / sAlkehAtChie / sumter / union / upstAte 11/18/2013

Payal Shah’s research isn’t conducted

in a lab or by looking at statis-

tics. For two years, Shah lived her

research — eating, sleeping, talking

and studying alongside her young

subjects in rural India.

Shah, an assistant professor in

the College of Education, has spent

significant time in India over the past 10 years to

better understand problems facing young

girls and their education. She wanted

to understand how education can

empower girls there and how edu-

cation impacts social issues in the

country.

“I look at the ways in which

the formal education system in

India can or cannot promote a

greater orientation toward over-

all gender equality. In particular, I

look at programs that explicitly try

to promote girls’ empowerment and try

to understand how the girls internalize these

programs by listening to their experiences,” she said.

Living in the rural village — with no consistent

electricity or running water — was challenging, Shah

said, but it allowed her to experience the difficulties

facing the girls.

“It was one of the most impactful experiences in

my life because I developed deep, real relationships

with the girls and the teachers,” she said. “They really

welcomed me into their world. I learned much more

from them than one can imagine, and I took away

much more than one could possibly give back.”

That experience gave Shah more insight into the

data she studied. It gave her the ability to understand

the nuances of why and how, she said.

“You can make a lot more sense of the problems

that rural, marginalized girls experience when you see

how they live,” she said. “Girls’ voices are largely absent

from academic and policy debates. The experiences

of the girls are important and can help us understand

what’s happening on the ground.”

Shah made it a point to include local,

state and national lawmakers in her

work, keeping them up-to-date so

that the data could have a real-

world application.

“I’d like my research to have

multiple impacts. So of course, the

academic component is very im-

portant to me, but my professional

engagement with India started in

2003 working with these populations

firsthand,” she said. “I want my research

to be helpful as policymakers think about de-

veloping policy. ”

This research could have a broader impact beyond

India’s borders, Shah said.

“I think it’s just as important for us to know how

marginalized girls in India are living as we know how

children in the inner city and rural America are living,”

she said. “If we truly want to understand what these

problems look like and come up with locally appropri-

ate solutions, the more examples we have the better

equipped we will be to address these issues.”

on the inside

GettinG to the heart of it

BY LIZ

MCCARTHY

This is the last issue of usc Times this year. The next issue comes out in January, and with it, several important changes. Times will have a new look and feel, and the way you get it will change. Instead of arriving in your mailbox every two weeks, Times will be available once per month in 25 newspaper racks around campus. If you have any questions about usc Times, contact Liz Mccarthy, 803-777-2848, lizmccarthy@sc.edu. Thanks for reading!  !

Lasers, radar, synthetic insulin, blood thinners, computers, rocket fuel: For more than 50 years, university research has propelled the united states to the forefront of technol-ogy. considering the myriad challenges we face as a nation — from an aging population to mounting environmental threats and the search for new fuels to power ourselves sustainably into the future — research and development of new technologies is more criti-cal than ever.

Despite drastic reductions in federal grants that fund 70 percent of research at universi-ties across the country, usc researchers stand out as strong national competitors, garner-ing more than $200 million in external funding each of the past six years. But the important work of our faculty and student researchers has value beyond the financial bottom line.

We can all take pride in usc’s distinguished position as the state’s only univer-sity to receive the carnegie Foundation’s top ranking as an institution with very high research activity. And, with our nationally renowned research centers answering the call for innovative solutions in key areas like health sciences, advanced materials, energy, environment and sustainability, we can take even more Game-cock pride in knowing that research at usc is helping to secure a better quality of life and a brighter future for all.

— Prakash Nagarkattivice president for research

University of soUth carolina 2

LookinG under the hood

Brain research today is in the

midst of a revolution, and Chris

Rorden is one of its leaders.

“I think of Galileo and what

he was able to do with a new

tool, the telescope,” says Ror-

den, the SmartState Chair in

Neuroimaging Research. “In just

a few days of observation, he was able to discover

moons orbiting another planet, Jupiter. He opened

up new worlds in science.”

Historically, studying brain damage was a grim

three-step process: observe mental problems,

wait for the patient’s death and then try to piece

together what happened after autopsy. But like

Galileo, modern-day neuroscientists have new tools

that let them see much more than before.

“Looking at the brain is very exciting right now,”

says Rorden. “We have a lot of new technologies,

and one of the most powerful is magnetic reso-

nance imaging (MRI).”

MRI scans give scientists detailed structural

information about the brain. The scans can be used

to watch blood flow in response to actions and

thoughts, a technique called functional MRI. In col-

laboration with Palmetto Health Richland Hospital,

the university has placed one of the most powerful

MRI instruments available in the McCausland Center

for Brain Imaging.

Rorden is co-director of the university facil-

ity located in the hospital. He works closely with

clinicians to understand stroke damage and

develop new therapies.

“There’s a group of research scientists and clini-

cians here at the University of South Carolina look-

ing at the chronic effects of a stroke, six months

to a year later,” says Rorden. “In this area, we’re

definitely world leaders.”

Apart from his specific areas of research, Ror-

den is a jack-of-all-trades in MRI research.

“I started my career when MRI scanners were

really rare,” says Rorden. “I spent a lot of time talk-

ing to MRI physicists to get useful data on those

early devices, so I tend to have good insight into

what goes on underneath the hood.”

That insight is highly sought after, says Scott

Vendemia, the coordinating manager for the center.

“He has publications in his specific area of

research, but he also makes contributions all over

the field,” Vedemia says. “He brings to the table

something that maybe five other people in the

world can, which is why he’s so valuable to every-

body who works with him.”

About the only thing

that’s remained the

same in the Office of

Sponsored Awards Man-

agement during the past

20 years is the size of

the staff.

Everything else about

the university’s research

enterprise — the number

of research grant pro-

posals, the complexity of

federal regulations and

the monetary total of

research awards — has

increased dramatically.

Fortunately, technology

has eased the crunch of managing all of that.

“The days are long gone when we would

be assisting faculty as they ran all over cam-

pus getting signatures on research proposals,

then overnighting the paperwork to a fund-

ing agency,” said Tommy Coggins, director of

SAM and the Office of Research Compliance.

“Everything is digital now, and that — along

with working smarter — is how our staff has

been able to keep up with the bigger volume

of work associated with USC’s research.”

In the past few years, USC faculty have

been submitting about 1,800 research propos-

als per year, with total sponsored project fund-

ing exceeding $220 million the past two years.

That productivity has earned the university

the designation of

being the state’s

only institution

with the highest

Carnegie research

designation.

Most of the uni-

versity’s sponsored

awards come from

federal research

agencies such as

the National Science

Foundation, the

National Institutes

of Health and the

Department of

Defense. With those

federal dollars have come myriad regulations.

“Bio safety, use of human subjects and

animal models in research studies are subject

to a lot of oversight,” said Coggins, who joined

the university’s research management office

in 1980. “In the past couple of years, our office

has seen another complex layer of regulations

on conflict of interest added to the mix of

research compliance activities.”

The university’s quest to increase its

research funding has been largely successful

in the past two decades, in spite of often flat

or decreased funding at large agencies. But

competition from other universities across the

country grows keener every year, Coggins said.

— Chris Horn

student scholars Faculty mentors

SponSored awardS ManaGeMent office SupportS uSc’S GrowinG reSearch enterpriSe

ManaGinG chanGe

1993 | 2013 proposals submitted

1993 | 2013 millions awarded

1155

1710

$60

.7

$220

.2

$2.35million

Total grant dollars

In the seven years since its creation, usc’s Magellan scholars program has become an eclectic stew of novel research involving undergraduate students from across the system. Bolstered by faculty mentors, the competitive grant program allows students to explore their passions while gaining valuable early insight into what it means to be a researcher.

Magellan scholars come from a wide array of disciplines

8% Arts10% humanities6% Business26% social science 36% science 14% engineering

109scholars from non-columbia

campuses

BY STEVEN

POWELL

Usc times 11/18/2013 3

USC BeaUfort Kasia Pawelek, an assistant pro-fessor of mathematics at usc Beaufort, is leading a research team that is collaborating with Beaufort county Mosquito control on a study intended to help curtail the spread of West Nile virus by developing optimum methods of controlling the population of mosquitoes that carry the disease. Pawelek’s research focuses on developing mathemati-cal models to study the spread of diseases caused by West Nile, influ-enza and other viruses.

USC LanCaSter sarah Hunt sellhorst, an assistant professor of exercise science at usc Lancaster, is a highly popular profes-sor with her students. This year she was voted Outstanding Professor of the Year by students. But sellhorst is also an active scholar with numer-ous articles in publications like the Journal of strength and conditioning Research. she also serves as direc-tor of the Gregory Health & Wellness center and vice chair of the Faculty Organization at uscL.

USC SUmter Park Bucker, a professor of English at usc sumter, has published books on F. scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe and Joseph Heller. He is cur-rently working on a book-length descriptive bibliography of the American humorist Dorothy Parker. Bucker is also an active stage direc-tor and actor. He has performed in more than 15 plays at usc columbia and played the Duke of cornwall in “King Lear” this year.

USC aiken spring-serenity Duvall, an assistant professor of commu-nications at usc Aiken, is rapidly developing a reputation as an authority on mass media representations of national and international issues. This year Duvall received a RIsE research grant for a project on u.s. media portrayal of celebrity activism after the Haiti earthquake in 2010.

USC SaLkehatChie Eran Kilpatrick, an associate profes-sor of biology, has increased the output of biological research from usc salkehatchie. He has men-tored undergraduate researchers on campus, leading to the campus’ first Magellan scholars Award. With the help of his undergraduate students, Kilpatrick initiated a biological research program centered in the salkehatchie region and has added to the understanding of reptile and amphibian ecology in the salke-hatchie watershed.

USC UpStatesamantha Hauptman, an assistant professor of criminal justice at usc upstate, recently published a book about the u.s. response to 9/11. The book, “The criminalization of Immi-gration: The Post 9/11 Moral Panic,” shows that the attacks left the u.s. government scrambling to find an appropriate response to terrorism. The ensuing “war on terror” stance brought sweeping new federal regu-lations and changes in immigration policy.

Deeonna Farr was on her

way to becoming a

medical doctor when

she traveled to

Ecuador to work

with a community

clinician. What

she saw there

changed her mind.

She still wanted

to help people, but

she thought her talents

and skills were better spent focused on improving health and well-

ness for whole communities rather than curing an individual’s illness.

“Public health works to build bridges between what’s discovered and

what’s delivered in a culturally appropriate and efficient way,” says Farr, a

doctoral student in health promotion, education and behavior. “By nature,

it’s an interdisciplinary science.”

Farr worked as a project manager at the Stroke Disparities Project and

earned degrees from Cornell and George Washington universities before

coming to USC in 2012 as a Presidential Fellow, through a program created by

the Graduate School to foster promising graduate scholars.

Inspired by the energy and sense of community at USC, Farr quickly got

to work, mentoring two undergraduate students and drafting a successful

National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant during her first semester at USC.

The grant provides two years of funding so Farr can look at factors that

influence cancer research participation by African-Americans. Working along-

side Heather Brandt, an associate professor, Farr will examine individual and

structural factors that lead to increased rates of chronic diseases, like cancer,

in minority communities.

“One of the advantages of USC is that we have a high

participation of African-Americans in our research and

a large network of researchers and community part-

ners to help us better understand how to address the

problem of cancer,” says Brandt, who is also a faculty

member at USC’s Cancer Prevention and Control Pro-

gram. Farr’s grant builds on the successes of a larger

NIH project at USC.

“The grant encompasses faculty researchers from sev-

eral departments affiliated with the Cancer Prevention and

Control Program and includes community organizations as part

of the research team,” Brandt says.

This is crucial to building trust among participants.

“When commu-

nity organizations

have a partner-

ship and a place at

the table from the

beginning, we’re

more likely to have an

impact,” Farr says.

And Farr’s study has no shortage

of involvement from across disciplines

and from local partners. Health promotion, epidemiology, psychology and

nursing are all helping with the project.

“Public health is broader than what happens at a doctor’s office,” Farr

says. “We’re working with communities to first find out what the needs are,

then to build solutions based on that.”

S yStemwideThe Office of Research seeks to support fac-ulty excellence in research, creative activities and other scholarly pursuits so the office estab-lished the featured scholars initiative to recognize usc’s outstanding faculty from across the university’s diverse schools, colleges and campuses. Here are a few carolin-ians from across the system conducting groundbreaking research in their fields.

BuiLdinG coMMunitieS for heaLth BY HANNAH

SPICHER

“Public health is broader

than what happens at a

doctor's office”

University of soUth carolina4

Vol. 24, No.18 NoV. 18, 2013USC Times is published 20

times a year for the faculty

and staff of the University of

South Carolina by the Divi-

sion of Communications.

The University of

South Carolina does

not discriminate in

educational or employment

opportunities or decisions

for qualified persons on the

basis of race, color, religion,

sex, national origin, age,

disability, genetics, sexual

orientation or veteran

status.

uscTIMEsManaging editor: liz McCarthy

Designer: linda Dodge

Contributors: Peggy Binette, Craig

Brandhorst, Frenché Brewer, Glenn Hare,

Thom Harman, Chris Horn, Page Ivey,

Steven Powell, Megan Sexton and

Jeff Stensland

Photographers: Kim Truett

To reach us: 803-777-2848

or lizmccarthy@sc.edu

Campus correspondents: Patti McGrath, Aiken

Candace Brasseur, Beaufort

Shana Dry, lancaster

Jane Brewer, Salkehatchie

Misty Hatfield, Sumter

Tammy Whaley, Upstate

Jay Darby, Palmetto College

on the verGe of a BreakthrouGhBreakthrough magazine, the official publication of USC’s Office of Research,

returns in December with a new look and a range of stories highlighting the lat-

est research from around the Carolina community. The winter 2014 cover story

explores assistant professor of pharmacology, physiology and neuroscience

Susan Wood’s research on the link between depression and cardiovascular

disease. Other stories focus on the research of social work professors Dana

DeHart, Aidyn Iachini and Teri Browne, statistics professor Don Edwards and

undergraduate Casey Cole.

Size MatterSOne of the thinnest membranes ever made is also highly discrimi-nating when it comes to the molecules going through it. Assistant professor of chemical engineering Miao Yu led a team that used tiny flakes of graphene oxide to construct a “molecular sieve” just two or three atoms thick. It lets helium and hydrogen through easily, but not larger molecules like carbon dioxide. “Having membranes so thin is a big advantage in separation technology,” says Yu. He thinks the technology could be used to make filters that clean water tainted by fracking operations and is working with the university to develop the intellectual property.

BreakthrouGhS in LeaderShip

The Office of Research's Breakthrough Leadership in Research Award honors faculty whose interdisciplinary collaboration, mentoring and other efforts demonstrate the highest caliber of academic leadership. The eight inaugural winners share their thoughts on what they do and why they do it.

“We are here to generate new knowl-edge and to teach. Ideally, the two activities should be one. Teaching and research become one when we mentor students in the laboratory.”

- Lucia Pirisi-creek, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

“There is little that is more gratifying to senior faculty than to help young people navigate the complexities and challenges of becoming a scientist and an academic. It is at the root of what I consider to be the most important role that I have.”

- Frank Berger, Department of Biological sciences

“Our graduate students are almost like consultants. Instead of having them do a thesis, I match them up with a client and they go out and solve a real-life problem.”

- simon Hudson, center for Economic Excellence in Tourism “The work at Topper has been

years in the making, involving a lot of really wonderful people — from donors and volunteers to students, news media and several talented colleagues. I’m truly amazed at the number of dedicated people who have had a hand in our success.”

- Albert Goodyear, s.c. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropol-ogy, lead investigator at the Topper archeological dig in Allendale county

“A big emphasis of mine in recent years has been mentoring junior faculty and graduate students. I feel that I owe that. It’s my responsi-bility to help these younger people because I didn’t have it when I came here, but I had it in spades when I was in grad school. I feel an obli-gation to pay forward what others gave to me.”

- Michael sutton, Department of Mechanical Engineering

“We accumulate treasures for the state’s citizens, for every future student, but we share them with everybody. These digitiza-tion projects are about public generosity, public goodwill. And I think that’s a big part of the leadership equation.”

- scott Gwara, Department of English and comparative Literature, project leader in the effort to digitize and promote usc’s medieval manuscript collection

“I see myself as a leader, but I also see myself as a servant of the people, particularly people who are disenfran-chised. That means not trying to do things for the people, not dictating ‘this is what needs to be done,’ but doing things with the people based on their community’s particular needs.”

- Gloria Boutte, Department of Instruction and Teacher Education

“I made a conscious decision several years ago to invest time, effort and interest in the research development of other faculty, while maintaining my own scientific program and have never regretted doing so.”

- Ron Prinz, Department of Psychology

S CieNCe CORNeR