Southern Wesleyan awarded AdvanceSC grant
July 10, 2011
COLUMBIA, SC – July 8 – 2011 – Southern Wesleyan University hasreceived a $50,000 grant for Chemistry Professor Pascal Binda’s projectentitled, “Designing new catalysts for the synthesis of polylactidepolymers with enhanced degradation rate in composting environments foruse in packaging applications.” This project involves designing bettercatalysts that allow for varying rates of polylactide decompositionaccording to the type of packaging. Some types of polylactide polymer, apackaging material, require longer decomposition times, while othertypes of packaging materials require a quicker decomposition.
The grant is awarded by AdvanceSC, a company that funds economicdevelopment projects in the Upstate. According to Binda, the grant willprovide chemicals and financing for research. He said that mostundergraduate students require technical skills in conducting scientificresearch to be successful in manufacturing industries and graduateschool projects.
“Getting this funding is a huge advantage for us,” Binda said. “We cancarry out projects with students who are passionate about research anddevelopment in chemistry, but don’t always have the resources andfinances available to carry out the project.”
In addition to providing first-year funding for the university’sscientific research project, the AdvanceSC grant aids in promoting anddeveloping student proficiencies for high-tech and highly skilledmanufacturing jobs. Southern Wesleyan University’s collaboration withSealed Air Corporation for testing and evaluation is also an integralcomponent of the project.
AdvanceSC supports economic development, education, manufacturingand public assistance agencies in Duke Energy’s South Carolina servicearea. Established as a limited liability company by Duke Energy in 2004,AdvanceSC is funded with profits from the company’s Bulk PowerMarketing program and is managed by a board of Upstate South Carolinaleaders. Grant applications and information about AdvanceSC areavailable on its web site at www.advancesc.org.
