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 announcement came at Friday's meeting of the board of trustees.

Smith recently sold the 97-year-old, family-owned rigid packaging company, headquartered in Atlanta, to a global packaging company. He decided to invest in higher education to support the packaging industry his family helped define.

Smith has made gifts and pledges totaling $3.5 million to Clemson and Sonoco has contributed $2.5 million for the academic building, which will house the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics and related programs. The three-level building will include studios, labs and offices that will serve up to 500 students every year.

The new building is one of seven facility projects the trustees discussed and approved.

Clemson Vice President for Research and Economic Development Chris Przirembel reported that external funding of university research for 2006-07 totaled $141.4 million, the highest in the school's history.

"This total reflects outstanding achievement by faculty and staff across the University," he said. "This is not just a number; it's a commitment to excellence and to the involvement of our outstanding researchers in solving the world's problems."

For images of the planned Sonoco Institute, please visit: www.clemson.edu/newsroom/image_galleries/2007/october/October_releases.php5

For information about Clemson's graduate programs in graphic communications and packaging science, please visit: www.grad.clemson.edu/programs/GraphComm and www.grad.clemson.edu/programs/PkgSci respectively.