New Internal Funding Program Announced: Promising Investigators Research Award (PIRA)
The Office of Research and Graduate Education (ORGE) is pleased to announce the availability of institutional grant funds under the Promising Investigator Research Award (PIRA).

"As Vice President for research and graduate education, I am excited to announce this new opportunity to encourage the development, expansion and enhancement of faculty research projects," said Dr. Steven Kresovich. "I have been really impressed with the breadth and comprehensive nature of South Carolina's research and graduate programs. For a comprehensive institution to be great, balance is important, and that means building pillars in disciplines such as English and history as well as the physical sciences and engineering."

For more information about PIRA, please visit our website at: http://www.sc.edu/researchdev/pira.shtml.

Researchers’ grants total $2.7M
Two USC researchers—Drs. Dan Dixon and Sacoby Wilson—have been awarded $1.5 million and $1.2 million, respectively from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dixon, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and a researcher in the Center for Colorectal Cancer Research, is investigating genes involved with growth and inflammation that are overexpressed in colorectal cancer tumors and cells to identify targets for new cancer drugs, Wilson, a research assistant professor in the Institute for Families in Society and the Arnold School of Public Health, is working with the Lowcountry Alliance for Model Communities to identify air, water and soil pollutants and the impact of these on environmental public health and revitalization efforts in seven disadvantaged North Charleston neighborhoods.

New associate VP for research named
Pam Benicewicz, a former senior physicist, project leader, and lab manager for General Electric in upstate New York and Greenville, S.C., has been named associate vice president for research and senior director of research advancement and outreach at Carolina. She first joined the University last year as director of industrial research relations.

3 top researchers to lead/co-direct CoEEs

Three leading researchers will direct two USC Centers of Economic Excellence (CoEE) and co-direct a third collaborative Center-- all aimed at creating jobs and new opportunities for South Carolinians.

Drs. Simon Hudson and Anton Jochen Lauterbach, will direct, respectively, new USC CoEEs in Tourism and Economic Development, and Strategic Approaches to the Production of Electricity from Coal. Dr Steve Blair will co-direct (with Dr. Carolyn Jenkins of MUSC’s College of Nursing) the collaborative Technology Center to Enhance Healthful Lifestyles. .