Author: Author Listing Page

A photo of a group of colorful rubberbands isolated on a white background.

Ring polymer research points way to new industrial and biomedical applications

March 06, 2024, Chris Horn

Imagine smartphones that bend, twist and stretch like rubber. Or 3D-printed material that mimics the pliable characteristics of human cartilage found in knees, noses and ears. It’s not much of a stretch for Ting Ge, an assistant professor in chemistry and biochemistry who has just begun a five-year CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to delve deeper into the field of ring polymers.

A person in protective gear with clipboard observing waste in a landfill.

Engineering team experiments with new method for processing problematic landfill compound

February 29, 2024, Chris Horn

An experimental project led by a team of USC engineering researchers could lead to a more efficient process for converting landfill gases into cleaner fuel — and simultaneously deal with a silicone-based compound called siloxane that has become problematic for landfills.

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Remembering the Days -- USC during Reconstruction

February 05, 2024, Chris Horn

USC's modern desegregation took place in 1963 when three African American students enrolled at the historically white university — but they actually weren't the first black students in the university's history. For a brief window in the 1870s, USC became the only state-supported public university in the South to open its doors to white and black students alike.

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Remembering the Days -- 3 in 1: The Women's Quad

January 22, 2024, Chris Horn

A century ago, USC built its first dormitory for women, whose presence on campus had not been warmly welcomed when they first arrived in the 1890s. While other women's dorms have come and gone on campus, the Women's Quad retains its status as the original location for and the only present location of women's-only residence halls at the university. 

a pair of hands operate controls in a flight simulator

Remembering the Days -- Flying high: aviation at USC

November 29, 2023, Chris Horn

USC's connections to aviation go higher than you might think. From civilian and military aviator training to the state's only aeronautical engineering degree program, the university has been spreading its wings for decades. One chapter in the story includes a farmboy who flew a plane by himself at age 12.

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Remembering the Days -- Hoops venues, 1908 to the present

November 21, 2023, Chris Horn

In the years since USC's first basketball season tipped off in 1908, the Gamecocks have played in no less than seven different venues on campus — including an outdoor court in their first season. For many years, games were played in a now-demolished field house that once occupied a spot in the middle of campus. 

woman stands next to a wall with a sign that reads community health

Reaching the most vulnerable

October 23, 2023, Chris Horn

Fifteen years ago, Julie Smithwick was a community health worker focused solely on new Latino mothers and families in South Carolina. Today, she directs a new center at the University of South Carolina that’s training hundreds of community health workers who assist vulnerable populations with health and social needs ranging from children with disabilities to adults with chronic diseases and more.

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Remembering the Days -- The wilderness years: USC sports in the independent era

October 19, 2023, Chris Horn

The two decades between USC's departure from the Atlantic Coast Conference and entry into the Southeastern Conference were a challenging time for Gamecock sports. But USC sports enthusiast Alan Piercy's new book about that era reminds us that a lot of cool things —  including a Heisman Trophy winner and a new iteration of USC's mascot — came about in the midst of those wilderness years. 

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Remembering the Days -- Booked solid: the history of USC Press

October 10, 2023, Chris Horn

For nearly 80 years, the University of South Carolina Press has been publishing books — more than 1,000 and counting — on topics ranging from the history of the Palmetto State to literary figures, cuisine and much more. Pull up a reading chair and learn more about the Press came to be. 

Sanaz Sadati wears safety glass in a lab with workers in lab coats in the background

Chemical engineering team pioneers 3D-printing techniques to mimic natural materials

September 27, 2023, Chris Horn

Replicating the shimmering iridescence of a butterfly wing, the hammer-like hardness of a mantis shrimp claw or the strength of mammalian cortical bone is no simple matter. But a chemical engineering scientist and her research team at the University of South Carolina are pioneering 3D-printing methods to create novel soft materials that mimic intricate nanostructures found in nature.

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Remembering the Days -- Double parked: campus parking, parking tickets and the campus shuttle

September 27, 2023, Chris Horn

Visit any urban campus in America and the No. 1 complaint almost always will be the parking situation. Parking at USC became an issue in the 1960s as enrollment skyrocketed. The university dealt with it by building parking garages and adding a campus shuttle system. To enforce the parking rules, there was a regiment of parking officers, which, for nearly half a century, included 'Miss Pat.'

sophomores in 1965 at USC

Black students in the early years of USC's desegregation

August 30, 2023, Chris Horn

The first three Black students enrolled at USC on Sept. 11, 1963, but the university’s desegregation was a process, not a once-and-done event. In the years that followed, more Black students would enroll — a trickle that would eventually become a steady stream. What were their experiences at what had been an all-white university?

James wolf stands in a restaurant wearing a gamecock club golf shirt

Business graduate heads active alumni group in Queen City

August 16, 2023, Chris Horn

James Wolf has been a Gamecock since he saw his first football game at Williams-Brice at the age of 7. Wolf, a 2005 business school graduate and financial adviser, has been president of the Charlotte, N.C., chapter of the Gamecock Club and USC Alumni Association for 14 years. He brings an energy to the role that is equal parts motivational speaker and loyal alumnus.

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Remembering the Days -- Rutledge Chapel wedding bells

May 18, 2023, Chris Horn

An integral part of the oldest building on campus, the Rutledge Chapel has been in continuous use since 1805 and has a rich history of its own. But that history is still being written as, every year, alumni say their wedding vows inside the venerable chapel's walls.

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Remembering the Days -- The campus during wartime

May 11, 2023, Chris Horn

Since its founding in 1801, the University of South Carolina, its students and alumni have been profoundly affected by wars, most notably the Civil War, WWI, WWII and the Vietnam War. As Memorial Day draws near, it is a fitting time to remember.

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Remembering the Days -- 'Believe It or Not!'

May 01, 2023, Chris Horn

Decades ago, an illustrator named Robert L. Ripley presented tales of the strange, the bizarre and the unexpected — and challenged the public to 'believe it or not!' In that spirit, here are three such tales from the University of South Carolina's past.

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Remembering the Days -- Remembering the pioneers

April 17, 2023, Chris Horn

Sixty years ago, the University of South Carolina opened its doors to all students, regardless of race, when it enrolled three Black students — Henrie Monteith, Robert Anderson and James Solomon. But what was campus life like for the Black students who immediately followed in their footsteps in 1964 and beyond?

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Remembering the Days -- Message in a bottle

February 16, 2023, Chris Horn

USC students in 1977 buried an eclectic assortment of items for a time capsule that was unearthed in 2001 as part of the university's bicentennial celebration. That same year, another time capsule was buried on the Horseshoe — with its own treasure trove of items — with an opening scheduled for 2051.

The library named after Peden McLeod, at the USC Salkehatchie campus in Walterboro.

Family and community support fuels building renovation at USC Salkehatchie

February 09, 2023, Chris Horn

Peden McLeod, a 1967 graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law believed in public service. Founder, chairman and CEO of the Bank of Walterboro as well as a state legislator, McLeod worked tirelessly to establish and support the USC Salkehatchie campus. It’s fitting, then, that the only building named for an individual on the campus in Walterboro honors McLeod: the Peden McLeod Library, which was dedicated in 1998.

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Remembering the Days -- The Duel of 1833

November 14, 2022, Chris Horn

Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton engaged in an infamous duel in 1804, and a number of South Carolina College students nearly got tangled up in duels in the years before the Civil War. History records only one duel  involving South Carolina College students that ended in fatality — and this is the strange story of that tragedy. 

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Remembering the Days -- Palmetto Ivy: How the Honors College came to be

October 31, 2022, Chris Horn

USC's Honors College was established in the 1970s around the time that several other of the nation's first honors colleges came into being. But the South Carolina Honors College would eventually emerge as one of the nation's best, boasting hundreds of honors courses and attracting some of the best students from the Palmetto State and beyond. 

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Remembering the Days -- First things first

October 17, 2022, Chris Horn

Curtis Frye, head coach of field and track head at USC, knows a thing or two about coming in first place and being the first to do something. He's done all of those in his time at Carolina, including bringing home the university's first-ever national championship trophy. Perhaps most importantly, Coach Frye understands the importance of putting first things first. 

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Remembering the Days -- The not-so-secret gardens

September 26, 2022, Chris Horn

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world … is a garden.” When Frances Hodgson Burnett penned those words more than a century ago in her classic children’s book The Secret Garden, there probably were very few, perhaps not any flower gardens on the University of South Carolina campus. But we’ve made up for it in the past 50 years or so. On this short tour, you'll learn the history of several not-so-secret gardens on campus and what's planted in each one. 

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Remembering the Days -- The Myth of Commodore Capstone

August 25, 2022, Chris Horn

What building on the University of South Carolina campus was named for a Confederate navy commodore and commemorated on a picture postcard? It's a trick question! A high-rise residence hall was featured on a postcard in the late 1960s, and the caption on the postcard said the building was named in honor of alumnus Epaminondas J. Capstone, a Confederate commodore. But separate fact from fiction is the real story.

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Remembering the Days -- Sink or Swim: the freshman lifesaver course

August 22, 2022, Chris Horn

Fifty years ago, it wasn't uncommon to hear professors give the "look to your left, look to your right — one of you will have failed by the end of the semester" speech. But exactly 50 years ago, Carolina tried something different: a course designed to help freshmen feel like they belonged along with the academic tools they needed to succeed. It was called University 101, and it became model for hundreds of colleges across the country.

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Remembering the Days -- Fair play: the 50th anniversary of Title IX

June 03, 2022, Chris Horn

Women's college sports barely on the radar in the early 1970s, but Title IX changed everything by leveling the playing field for men's and women's sports at the collegiate level. Meet two of the first 18 women to receive athletics scholarships at the University of South Carolina, which is now a national leader in parity for its men's and women's sports programs.

image of brick block with 2x4

UofSC engineers develop disaster-resistant building materials

June 01, 2022, Chris Horn

For the past 10 years, Fabio Matta, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been engineering earthen building blocks made from local soil. Up close, the blocks don’t look like anything special, but their simplicity is the appeal — the blocks don’t require firing in energy-intensive kiln furnaces and can stand up to the worst Mother Nature can throw at them.

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Remembering the Days -- A Memorial Day tribute

May 20, 2022, Chris Horn

Eighty-one graduates of the University of South Carolina have died in military service since the Spanish-American War at the close of the 19th century. In observance of Memorial Day, we remember three who died serving their country in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War.

electric car plugged into power source

Incentivizing purchase of green vehicles is not always a straightforward proposition

May 13, 2022, Chris Horn

In an ideal world, perhaps everyone would drive electric cars or use public transportation powered by renewable energy — and that world would have cleaner air and far less greenhouse gas emissions. But in the real world many consumers remain skeptical of plug-in electric and hybrid cars or shy away from those vehicle’s higher price tags. Government-sponsored incentives have helped to some degree, but research by two faculty members in the Moore School of Business reveals those incentives sometimes come with unintended consequences.

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Remembering the Days -- High-rise hijinks, life in the Towers

May 03, 2022, Chris Horn

Pranks and pratfalls are part of life in any college residence hall, but one dormitory complex at the University of South Carolina seemed to have more than its fair share. Stories about life in the Towers, also known as the Honeycombs and the Veilblocks, are now almost the stuff of legend. Here are a few anecdotes from yesteryear about those long-gone dorms. 

Ero Amiridis smiles for the camera with colorful painting in background

Ero Aggelopoulou-Amiridis is proud to be a Gamecock

May 02, 2022, Chris Horn

President-elect Michael Amiridis isn’t the only Gamecock returning to the roost this summer. His wife, Ero Aggelopoulou-Amiridis, has just as deep a Carolina connection. In addition to her bachelor’s degree in math from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the university’s new first lady holds two advanced degrees from USC — a master’s in art history, ’97, and a Ph.D. in philosophy, ’12.

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Remembering the Days -- The grass whisperer, Sarge Frye

April 19, 2022, Chris Horn

Sarge Frye knew how to make grass grow, and for five decades he made sure the University of South Carolina's athletic fields were green and trimmed. But much more than that, Sarge had a heart for people and connected with everyone he met. It's why his name continues to be synonymous with Gamecock sports. 

Big Sur California coastline

UofSC-trained climate experts map a path forward for business and government

April 06, 2022, Chris Horn

Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that Earth’s rising temperatures and related phenomena — more frequent and severe drought, flooding and wildfires — are a result of human-caused climate change. Scientists who earned their Ph.D.s from South Carolina are applying their expertise to help corporations adopt more eco-friendly approaches to doing business and developing more equitable policies for coastal land use.

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Remembering the Days: Write me a letter

March 28, 2022, Chris Horn

Long before texting, Facetime and email were a thing, university students sat down with pen and paper to ask their parents for money, beg forgiveness when they got in trouble and invite someone special for a date. This quaint assortment of letters from University of South Carolina students of yesteryear covers all of those topics and more.

Celia Dial Saxon in plaid dress, Normal School group photo

The honor and dignity of Celia Dial Saxon

February 07, 2022, Chris Horn

A student residence hall near the Colonial Life Arena has become the first University of South Carolina building named for an African American. Formerly known as 700 Lincoln, the Celia Dial Saxon Building honors an educator and community advocate whose teaching career spanned six decades in segregated schools near the university campus.

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Essay collection sheds light on the largely unknown history of Black people at UofSC

January 31, 2022, Chris Horn

The University of South Carolina desegregated in 1963, but the history of Black people on campus extends back to the university’s beginning in the early 19th century. In 10 illuminating essays edited by Robert Greene II and Tyler Parry, Invisible No More (USC Press 2021) tells that story.

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Remembering the Days: #UofSCLove

January 31, 2022, Chris Horn

When we think back to our college days, some of us remember old boyfriends and girlfriends or maybe former roommates that we still stay in touch with. And for some, college is where they met that special someone — the person with whom they fell in love and then, quite possibly, lived happily ever after.

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Remembering the Days: The lecture hall that never was

January 10, 2022, Chris Horn

When it was dedicated in 1855, the building we now know as Longstreet Theater was already a disappointment. The audience gathered could scarcely understand what was being said because of the poor acoustics. So how did this echo chamber eventually become the premier stage for live theater at the university? Sound engineering!

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Remembering the Days: The Great Biscuit Rebellion

December 07, 2021, Chris Horn

For much of the first half of the 19th century, students at South Carolina College were not pleased with the quality of food served on campus. In 1852, the wormy biscuits and rancid meat were too much to stomach, so the students issued an ultimatum — that ultimately gave them a case of indigestion.

Ismael Delgado, graduating senior 2021

Biochemistry major, December graduate parlays lab skills into job

November 29, 2021, Chris Horn

College life has been a quite a ride for Ismael Delgado, who switched campuses, changed majors, flipped his bike, broke his collarbone, fell in love with scuba diving — and studied abroad in South Korea during the pandemic. And if all of that weren’t enough, Delgado managed to turn his passion for laboratory research into a regular job in a COVID-testing lab and developed career plans for after graduation this December.

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Remembering the Days: Remembering Havilah Babcock

November 15, 2021, Chris Horn

He loved fly fishing and bird hunting and wrote numerous tales about both of those sporting passions. And when he wasn't doing those things, Havilah Babcock was in the classroom, a favorite English professor for generations of students at the University of South Carolina.

Molly O'Malley beside helicopter

Former Marine Corps pilot awarded scholarship as she pursues speech-language pathology degree

November 08, 2021, Chris Horn

During her 12 years as a Marine Corps helicopter pilot, Maj. Molly O’Malley flew in a war zone and quickly learned to make split-second decisions up in the air and deal with daily challenges on the ground. But transitioning from full-time military pilot to part-time graduate student at South Carolina hasn’t turned out to be the cakewalk you might imagine.