Lowcountry businesswoman donates for aeronautics research as program takes shape
USC’s aerospace research center has received a second $5 million gift, the university announced Thursday, adding to the center’s developing structure and landing it a well respected researcher to take the helm.
The gift, from Anita Zucker, the chief executive officer and chairman of the North Charleston–based InterTech Group, establishes the Zucker Institute for Aerospace Innovation and the McNair Chair, a new position.
The institute and chair position both contribute to the developing structure of the McNair Center for Aerospace Innovation and Research, which was established last year when Darla Moore pledged $5 million to promote aeronautics research in a state where the industry has been growing since Boeing arrived in North Charleston in 2009.
Moore named the center for Ronald McNair, a native of Moore’s hometown, Lake City, S.C., who died in the Challenger shuttle disaster.
How the funds will be spread out isn’t fully set yet, USC President Harris Pastides said, but they’ll primarily go toward applied research and development, faculty and graduate researchers and a new set of four degree programs. They’ll also be used to leverage the SmartState program’s matching funds initiatives, Pastides said.
The first of those academic programs — master’s degrees in aerospace engineering, the state’s first, and in engineering management — will roll out in the spring. They’ll be offered on campus and online.
USC’s board of trustees approved a contract with Dallas-based Academic Services to offer graduate degrees online; the company isn’t charging up front for the service but will receive a third of the tuition the programs bring in.
Those programs will be followed up in the fall by bachelor’s and master’s degrees in systems design, Pastides said.
And as Zafer Gürdal, the new McNair Chair and the center’s technical director, sees it, creating a set of degrees is the center’s first step on the way to gaining international prominence.
When he applied for the position, he pitched a 15-year plan that starts by establishing degree programs and partnerships with the aerospace industry and would later focus more on garnering research funding and creating doctoral positions, Gürdal said.
A primary focus is on building relationships with companies in the industry, and Pastides said USC was considering a membership model to draw them in. For that to work, he said, it’ll have to provide businesses with innovation and solutions.
“It won’t be successful if we don’t meet technological needs,” Pastides said, adding that memberships would serve more as investments than as philanthropy.
But Gürdal, who ran research programs at Virginia Tech and at the Netherland’s Delft University of Technology, cautioned that while he sees potential in the McNair Center — enough to draw him from the Netherlands — its results won’t be immediate.
“It’s an opportunity I wouldn’t want to miss,” he said. “It’s going to take time.”
The center has also been working to develop partnerships to attract students from around the state, including with the Governor’s School for Science and Math, IT-oLogy and programs in the College of Engineering and Computing, university spokesman Wes Hickman said.
Rep. Jim Clyburn praised those relationships and the prospect for them to educate young South Carolinians.
“The McNair center serves as a living legacy for the precocious child who says, ‘Why not?’ and those who look at space and dream of what is beyond our earthly barriers,” Clyburn said.
The gift is Zucker’s first to the university, Pastides said, though she has served on the President’s Initiative Committee and a panel that has advised USC’s Carolina’s Promise capital campaign.
In June, the Zucker family gave Clemson University $5 million to build the Zucker Family Graduate Education Center in North Charleston.
The center has been touted as a player in what state officials hope could be a growing industry in South Carolina’s economy.
“I commend you for the next big thing for the University of South Carolina — and the sixth congressional district,” Clyburn said.