Read the entire news release here.

During the academic year, fellows study at their universities and conduct a research project under supervision of an academic mentor and in consultation with an ETS research scientist. During the summer, fellows participate in the ETS Summer Internship Program for Graduate Students. The program is open to national and international applicants who are enrolled in a doctoral program and who have completed all required coursework toward the PhD.  Applicants should be at the dissertation stage of their program.

The deadline for applying for the summer internship and postdoctoral fellowship programs is February 1, 2008. The deadlines for applying for the Harold Gulliksen program are December 3, 2007 for the preliminary nomination materials and February 1, 2008 for the final application materials.

For more information on these great fellowship and internship opportunities - including information about stipends awarded with each, the application process, etc - Please visit www.ets.org/research/fellowships.html.

This inaugural fellowship program recognizes the students' past achievements and contributions to Clemson and confirms each student's future commitment to COMSET and its vision to be the internationally recognized academic leader in optical materials.

The Graduate School would like to congratulate each student on this prestigious honor and thank them for being such a wonderful representative of Clemson University.

To find out more about the COMSET Graduate Fellowship program, visit http://comset.clemson.edu/article.php?story=funding_opps or contact Dr. Dennis Smith at dwsmith@clemson.edu.

For more information about Clemson's graduate programs in chemistry and physics, please visit the following websites, respectively: www.grad.clemson.edu/programs/Chemistry/index.php and www.grad.clemson.edu/programs/Physics/index.php.

Caron St. John, associate dean of the College of Business and Behavioral Science at Clemson University, has received the Dr. Charles Townes Individual Achievement Award for outstanding leadership, innovation and technological excellence in the Upstate community.

St. John is the founder and director of the Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Clemson and director of the MBA program.

The Dr. Charles Townes Individual Achievement Award honors an individual who exhibits a commitment to the advancement of technology and the Upstate community through technology-oriented contributions. Such contributions may be business, civic and/or educational in nature and must benefit the Upstate.

InnoVision is the premier awards program focused exclusively on celebrating achievements in innovation and technological excellence in the South Carolina Upstate region. The following 10 counties are in the South Carolina Upstate region: Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg and Union.

For more information about Clemson's graduate programs in the College of Business and Behavioral Science, visit http://business.clemson.edu/.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $2 million to the Center for Biological Interfaces of Engineering (CBIOE) at Clemson University for the development of engineered tissues that will be used to study the causes, progression and treatment of breast cancer.

Breast cancer cells migrate and intertwine with stem cells. Clemson researchers will study the formation of patterns/migration.The tissue engineering technology, which was pioneered at Clemson, is based on inkjet printing and will allow the creation of identical tissue samples that can be used to build cause and effect models.

"We will expose these identical tissue models to different environmental conditions to better understand what causes and then stimulates the development of breast cancer. Our research team includes breast cancer surgeons, engineers and scientists - the breadth of expertise is tremendous and absolutely crucial for this very complex problem," said CBIOE director Karen Burg, who will lead the multi-disciplinary research team.

Other collaborating investigators include Steve Ellis and Susan Duckett in animal and veterinary sciences, Thomas Boland in bioengineering, Amy Moran in biological sciences, Jason McNeill in chemistry and Rick Groff and Timothy Burg in electrical and computer engineering. The initiative will benefit from input from CBIOE partnering institutions Carolinas Medical Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The CBIOE, located in Rhodes Engineering Research Building at Clemson University, is a state-approved research and training center. Its mission is to promote the development of clinically relevant biomaterials technology and products for disease treatment and the transfer of this technology for patient care.

The NSF grant was among seven awarded to institutions to advance basic knowledge and control in the area of cellular and biomolecular engineering through the newly established NSF Emerging Frontiers in Research Innovation Office (EFRI). Other institutions receiving EFRI awards are John Hopkins University, University of Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, University of Virginia and University of Wisconsin.

This latest gift establishes the Milton W. and Betty M. Holcombe Fund for Excellence to provide for programs such as undergraduate research for seniors and improved graduate education, visiting lecturers nad faculty and student enrichment.

"It is amazing to see the changes to the department since I was here," said Milt Holcombe, a 1953 graduate. "Betty and I still enjoy coming back to visit with the students and we are proud of the tremendous focus Clemson gives to its students. It is wonderful to see the employment opportunities these engineering students now have to stay in the state of South Carolina. That is something that was not available to me when I was in school."

An airborne communications systems pioneer, Milt Holcombe is originally from Central and now lives in Dallas with his wife, Betty, who grew up in Clemson. His career included development of the airborne command post systems for the Air Force to keep the president in touch with key officials during an international crisis.

He co-founded Electrospace Systems Inc., a multimillion-dollar telecommunications and navigation systems firm, later sold to the Chrysler Corp. Because of the Holcombes' investment over the last 20 years, Clemson has gained national prominence in the field of electronic communications, and electrical and computer engineering students have gained opportunities that will help them shape the future of communications.

"The generosity of the Holcombes will help us take the department of electrical and computer engineering to an even higher level," said newly appointed ECE department chairman Darren Dawson. "We plan to establish several new programs to ensure that we maintain our best and brightest students and faculty."

"This is truly an endorsement of the electrical and computer engineering department," said engineering and science Dean Esin Gulari. "This is the fuel that will get the word out about the high-quality research and propel the department's excellent reputation even further."

In addition to longtime support of Clemson through annual giving and volunteer service, the Holcombes created the Milton W. and Betty Holcombe Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1987 with a $1 million cash gift. Their support attracted to Clemson Michael Pursley, a world-class communications research scientist, who holds the chair.

Since beginning his doctoral studies in 2005, Neeraj has made a name for himself in his field. His research and work have led to multiple publications including the technical content of a successful proposal to the South Carolina State University Transportation Center. He has given oral presentations of his research at the past two Transportation Research Board annual meetings in Washington, DC, and in the process, he caught the acute attention and interest of several individuals in the research community and the commercial sector, including the Clemson University Research Foundation's Intellectual Property subcommittee.

His doctoral research is focused on tracking vehicles on highways using image processing and computer vision techniques. The main purpose of his research is to help traffic planners and emergency responders by automating the process of determining traffic loads and patters.

"I am not sure how to adequately convey the impressiveness of Neeraj's contributions. On his own initiative he had the foresight several years ago to recognize the importance of this research area, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he has single-handedly established this research area at Clemson. Neeraj is a bright student, able to identify important research problems on his own, as well as to develop novel solutions to solve them," stated Dr. Stan Birchfield, Neeraj's advisor and assistant professor in the electrical and computer engineering department.

In response to his award, Neeraj commented, "It's an honor to receive this award; it shows the Graduate School's appreciation of the research being done by us (Dr. Birchfield, Dr. Sarasua and me). This award will help me to cut back a little on TA hours and dedicate more time to research."

The Graduate School would like to congratulate and thank Neeraj for being such an incredible and driven student in his respective department and a leader on campus for others.

For more information about fellowships offered by the University, contact Valorie Troesch at vtroesc@clemson.edu.