December 12, 2025, Chris Horn
USC chemistry professor Linda Shimizu has a long list of accomplishments, including recently being named a fellow of the American Chemical Society, one of only 36 chemistry professors worldwide to receive the honor in 2025 for scientific and professional accomplishments.
November 11, 2025, Valerie Weingart
South Carolina Honors College student Michael Pitre has been named a finalist for the 2026 Marshall Scholarships. If selected, he plans to pursue an MPhil in biological sciences to develop novel treatments for Parkinson's disease before returning to USC for medical school.
October 31, 2025, Megan Sexton
As the university marks the celebration of First-Gen College Celebration Week, we caught up with first-generation students, alumni, faculty and staff who are thriving in the classroom and beyond.
October 07, 2025, Megan Sexton
James E. Bowers was an undergraduate student at USC in the early days of desegregation and the first full-time African American law school professor. He will cement his legacy with an endowed professorship in his name at the Joseph F. Rice School of Law, the first named for a Black law school professor, and an endowed lectureship series that will share knowledge about democracy and the rule of law.
September 29, 2025, Megan Sexton
Chris Burkett, the assistant dean for student services in the College of Education, has been a member of Staff Senate since its inception five years ago, representing his colleagues in education before moving to the executive committee. He became president in August.
September 22, 2025, by Craig Brandhorst, photos by Kim Truett
Over the past 16 years, Hogs for the Cause has raised millions of dollars to help families facing pediatric brain cancer. Cofounder Becker Hall credits the University of South Carolina for showing him the way.
September 19, 2025, Rebekah Friedman, photos by Kim Truett
Alumna Henrie Monteith Treadwell filed the lawsuit that desegregated USC. That moment was merely the prologue to a long and meaningful career.
September 12, 2025, Megan Sexton
Zachary Winkelmann, who teaches in the athletic training program in the Arnold School of Public Health, is the 2025 recipient of USC'sclinical practice teaching award, which recognizes a faculty member for outstanding clinical teaching, practice, advising and mentoring of health science students.
September 03, 2025, Megan Sexton
Chemistry professor Susan D. Richardson, the 2025 Carolina Trustees Professorship recipient, has spent her career researching water— from the safety of the water we drink to the quality of water for our ecosystems.
August 01, 2025, Megan Sexton
Kate Bernheisel has always had a knack for innovation, something that she has been able to combine with her passion for empathy and her career in health care. It’s what helped earn the nursing professor the Garnet Apple award for teaching innovation.
July 24, 2025, Chris Horn
The University of South Carolina’s School of Medicine has begun preparing its students to understand AI’s potential — and its shortcomings. The medical school in Columbia partnered last year with the Molinaroli College of Engineering and Computing to launch the AI in Medicine Extracurricular Track.
July 23, 2025, Catherine Pruitt
Courtney Tkacs has lived all over the world, the product of growing up in a military family. She moved to Lexington her sophomore year of high school and found her home in South Carolina. Today, Tkacs is working to make her University of South Carolina home a better place by serving as the student body president for the 2025-26 term.
July 10, 2025, Collyn Taylor
USC is rejoining the Campus Compact network, a coalition of higher education institutions, to enhance its community engagement efforts.
July 07, 2025, Page Ivey
Law professor Marcia Zug explores the history of marriage as a legal institution in her book "You’ll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other than Love."
June 23, 2025, Chris Horn
By 2050 plastic manufacturing around the world is projected to total 1 billion tons, and more than half of all that plastic is expected to end up in landfills and the ocean. It’s an industry that relies on petroleum as a key ingredient and produces products that can’t easily be recycled without generating additional waste. But USC's Chuanbing Tang has a game-changing idea for the world’s plastic crisis.
June 18, 2025, Page Ivey
Tom Gressette, '97 law, led an effort as president of the South Carolina Bar Foundation to increase the impact of grants given to legal resource organizations. Finding ways to help people was a lesson he learned growing up that was reinforced by his law school education.
May 30, 2025, Megan Sexton
For more than 35 years, USC’s Alzheimer’s registry has collected information on all diagnosed cases of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia in South Carolina. The first of its kind in the U.S., the registry provides a comprehensive resource for researchers, policymakers and caregivers, allowing them to track demographics and trends.
May 30, 2025, Téa Smith
Alamir Novin, assistant professor in the College of Information and Communications, recently conducted a volunteer-based study on user interaction with AI systems and how user bias evolves. Among the 200 participants, he found evidence of four basic types of cognitive bias: priming, anchoring, framing and availability.
May 30, 2025, Megan Sexton
The roots of Adm. Jacob Shuford’s 35-year U.S. Navy career — which took him to top postings all over the world — were planted and nurtured in the honors program at the University of South Carolina.
May 21, 2025, Chris Horn
Nursing faculty member Jessica Gonzalez was recently selected to become a Jonas Scholar, an elite cohort of emerging nursing leaders from across the country. And her current Ph.D. research, which focuses on disparities in breast cancer diagnoses, was recognized by the National Institutes for Health with an R25 training grant.
May 20, 2025, Megan Sexton
Susan Elkins, the founding chancellor of Palmetto College, steps down this month after 12 years leading the program which encompasses USC’s two-year system campuses along with online bachelor’s degree completion programs.
May 19, 2025, Rebekah Friedman
As the state’s flagship public university, the University of South Carolina seeks solutions to a range of modern challenges. And our researchers are lighting the way.
May 14, 2025, Brandon Pugh
Rising Honors College senior Ella Michel has been awarded a 2025 Udall Undergraduate Scholarship to continue her work at the intersection of energy, environment and community.
May 07, 2025, Megan Sexton
It’s not hard to understand why Brandi Revels loves her job as a researcher aboard the expedition ship Viking Polaris. The sense of awe — for our world, for our planet — drew her to science. Her love of adventure took her from West Columbia, South Carolina, to the far ends of the Earth. Revels, who earned her master’s in marine chemistry from the University of South Carolina in 2013, now lives in Zurich, Switzerland — when she’s not spending months at sea as the chief scientist aboard the Viking Polaris.
May 05, 2025, Chris Horn / photo by Kim Truett
Don Greiner set out to become a medical doctor. An encounter with the modern novel changed the course of his life.
May 02, 2025, Craig Brandhorst / photo by Kim Truett
Rick Layman studied under English professor, publisher and F. Scott Fitzgerald collector Matthew J. Bruccoli and later became Bruccoli’s business partner. Like his mentor, Layman also became a collector — in his case of Dashiell Hammett. And both men’s collections are now housed in USC’s Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.
April 30, 2025, Catherine Pruitt
Meet new student body Vice President Jordan Richardson who will serve during the 2025-26 academic year.
April 29, 2025, Craig Brandhorst / photos by Kim Truett
New athletics director Jeremiah Donati has only been on campus since January, but his vision for USC has been years in the making.
April 29, 2025, Craig Brandhorst / photos by Kim Truett
Between her jersey retirement and a Nike shoe hitting stores, three-time WNBA All-Star A’Ja Wilson is enjoying a banner year.
April 29, 2025, Gregory Hardy and Laura Morris
Jennifer Baumstark, a seasoned certified nurse-midwife and newly appointed director of the University of South Carolina’s accredited nurse-midwifery program, is spearheading efforts to improve maternal health across South Carolina. With a focus on mentorship, advocacy and expanding the nursing-midwifery workforce, Baumstark brings over two decades of clinical and academic experience to this pivotal role.
April 28, 2025, Craig Brandhorst
The Great Gatsby turned 100 in April. University Libraries is celebrating the novel’s centennial with a special exhibit and a full slate of public programs.
April 17, 2025
Ridha Fatima, a biochemistry and molecular biology major in the Honors College, says her experiences as a service-minded leader at the University of South Carolina will inform her career as a physician and health care advocate.
April 17, 2025
Tremayne Ansani, an Honors College neuroscience major from Columbia, has dedicated his University of South Carolina career to service and leadership in the classroom, in research and in helping his fellow students and the community at large.
April 17, 2025
Reese Lycan, an Honors College student from Lexington, Kentucky, is majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology with a goal of becoming a physician. But she also wants to advocate for better health care access, particularly for low-income residents of rural Appalachia.
April 17, 2025, Collyn Taylor
Theresa Harrison has spent 15 years at USC serving in a variety of roles, and she's ready for her new challenge to connect students, faculty and staff to the Columbia community.
April 14, 2025, Craig Brandhorst / photos by Kim Truett
Between her jersey retirement and a Nike shoe hitting stores, three-time WNBA All-Star A’Ja Wilson is enjoying a banner year.
March 06, 2025, Carol J.G. Ward
Tayloe Harding brings more than three decades of experience with the National Association of Schools of Music into his new role as its president to advance the cause of music in American life, establish and maintain accreditation standards and provide a national forum for related issues.
March 05, 2025, Catherine Pruitt
Allan Cabanayan was a leader among students interested in health occupations even before he got into upper-level nursing classes at the University of South Carolina. Growing up just down the road from USC in Hopkins, South Carolina, Cabanayan discovered his passion for nursing while attending Lower Richland High School, where he joined his school’s HOSA-Future Health Professionals chapter.
February 12, 2025, Megan Sexton
The Future Leaders in Medicine, a student organization at the USC School of Medicine Columbia, has teamed with Curing Kids Cancer to raise awareness – and funds— for the fight against childhood cancer.
February 10, 2025, Laura Erskine
Augusta Baker left a remarkable legacy in the fields of librarianship and children’s literature. After retiring from the New York Public Library system, Baker became storyteller-in-residence at USC from 1980 to 1994. It was the first position of its kind at an American university, a role created for Baker to teach students, librarians and educators how to make reading more exciting for children.
January 30, 2025, Kristin Lunz Trujillo et al
The many controversial people appointed to the Trump administration have at least one thing in common: They dislike and distrust experts. While anti-intellectualism and populism are nothing new in American life, there has hardly been an administration as seemingly committed to these worldviews.
January 28, 2025, Robert A. Kopack
If there is a leader in the aerospace industry, SpaceX is it. Boca Chica, Texas, is home to SpaceX’s flagship assembly and test installation, Starbase. Since 2021, research has been conducted with environmental groups and community members in south Texas who see space exploration as a landscape-altering industry. Geography professor Robert A. Kopack writes about Starbase for The Conversation.
January 27, 2025, Robert Kubinec
The fall of Bashar Assad’s dictatorship in December 2024 has ushered in a nerve-wracking time of hope and fear for Syrians concerning future governance in the long-war-torn country. While it’s unclear what exact political path Syria will take, the dilemmas the country faces are similar to the experiences of other Arab countries more than a decade ago. Robert Kubinec, assistant professor of political science at the University of South Carolina, writes for The Conversation about his research on Arab uprisings in the Middle East.
January 16, 2025, Megan Sexton
University of South Carolina alumnus and Medal of Honor recipient Marine Corporal (retired) Kyle Carpenter will be recognized during Monday’s national championship college football game.
January 15, 2025, Anna Francis
Natasha Hastings came to the University of South Carolina with dreams of excelling as an athlete. Although her talent eventually would propel her to an NCAA championship, multiple world championships and two Olympic gold medals, her initial start on the Gamecock track and field team was less than stellar. Her body was sound, but she had psychological demons to slay.
January 14, 2025, Rebekah Friedman
The University of South Carolina wasn’t on Dave Bollinger’s radar until his daughter, Ruth, enrolled in CarolinaLIFE. Now both Bollingers are giving back to support the next generation of USC students with intellectual disabilities.
January 10, 2025, Megan Sexton/Photo by Kim Truett
A first-generation college student at USC, James Bennett now strengthens community engagement as executive director of external affairs at First Citizens Bank.
January 06, 2025, Rebekah Friedman
When Cathy Knox, ’72, started her career as an elementary school teacher, her principal played a critical role as a mentor. Now retired, she is helping the next generation of educators get the coaching and support they need by supporting the Carolina Teacher Induction Program.
January 03, 2025, Kristine Hartvigsen
The USC Baruch Institute's new director, Jill Stewart, is endlessly fascinated by the natural alchemy of the oft-maligned yet mighty microbe. These tiny living microorganisms are everywhere, from the surface of our skin and the air we breathe to the water we drink and the soil beneath our feet. In fact, microbes are essential to the persistence of life on Earth. So why do they sometimes get a bad rap?
December 18, 2024, Craig Brandhorst/Photo by Kim Truett
Sharita Sims may not live in New York, but as manager of the New York Public Library’s community wellness programs, she couldn’t be more committed to the city and its people.