Clemson breaks ground for Zucker Family Graduate Education Center

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC — Clemson University officials broke ground Thursday for a $21.5-million building that will help shape the future of the state’s engineering landscape for generations to come.

President James P. Clements joined Anita Zucker, Jonathan and Laura Zucker for the ceremony celebrating the commencement of work on the approximately 70,000-square-foot Zucker Family Graduate Education Center, scheduled to be ready by fall semester 2016. It is located at theClemson University Restoration Institute in North Charleston on the former naval shipyard.

More than 75 Charleston County School District middle school STEM students attended the event, which featured tours of the SCE&G Energy Innovation Center, Duke Energy eGRID andWarren Lasch Conservation Center. The morning was punctuated by Jonathan Zucker scaling a giant black and yellow excavator and digging up a large chunk of land at the Supply Street location, marking the official beginning of the project.

When its doors open in 2016, the center will offer master’s and Ph.D. degrees in engineering. The program will eventually grow to approximately 200 students, 12 faculty, 40 researchers and staff.

According to Duke Energy, in the next five years 60 percent of its engineering workforce will be eligible for retirement.

“The Zucker Family Graduate Education Center will respond to industry’s demand for an engineering workforce for the future,” said Elizabeth Colbert-Busch, director of business development for the Clemson University Restoration Institute. “The center will bring opportunity for personal and professional growth for place-bound engineers who would like to have an advanced degree and expand their opportunities in the job market.”

In addition to students and faculty, office space in the center will be leased to industry looking to engage with faculty, students and researchers.

Nick Rigas, executive director of the Clemson University Restoration Institute, said, “This is a win-win proposition. Industry gets direct access to state-of-the-art facilities, researchers and students and Clemson gets a firsthand look into where technologies are heading and where the market needs are for the future.”

As Clements spoke to the students through a bullhorn while standing next to the excavator, he said, “Here we have the Hunley submarine in the Warren Lasch Conservation Center — that focuses on our past. Over there we have the SCE&G Energy Innovation Center— that deals with the present. And today we break ground on the Zucker Family Graduate Education Center, and that’s all about the future.”

Upon completion, the Zucker Family Graduate Education Center will serve as the academic anchor in the CURI applied technology park. Long-time supporters of Clemson University, Anita Zucker and Jonathan Zucker helped fund the center that will bear their family’s name.

Anita Zucker explained why she wanted to help make this center possible. “I’m passionate about STEM. I’m passionate about education. And I’m passionate about our region and what’s happening here,” she said. “For years our business community has complained that we don’t have enough graduate-level courses in engineering. Well, I feel like that call will finally be answered with this new center.”