S.C. State to expand astronomy studies
South Carolina State University received a five-year, $2 million award from the National Science Foundation to expand its astronomy program.

The historically black state university in Orangeburg is one of four schools nationally to win the award designed to enhance minority participation in astronomy and astrophysics.

The S.C. State program titled “A Partnership in Observational and Computational Astronomy,” includes funds for faculty research, undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, planetarium programs and web-based activities.

The S.C. State team is comprised of: Donald Walter, principal investigator, Jennifer Cash, Elizabeth Mayo and Daniel Smith, in partnership with scientists at Clemson University and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz.

Over the next five years, high school students will be recruited to attend S.C. State to major in physics with an interest in astronomy. The program will develop a mentorship program that will support student involvement in astronomy throughout the year.

Scholarships will be available for their undergraduate education followed by fellowships to attend the graduate program in astronomy at Clemson. Students will have the opportunity to intern at Clemson as well as in Arizona and South America. Faculty members will conduct astrophysical research and major education and outreach activities on S.C. State’s campus through the web and at the campus planetarium.

S.C. State is one of only a few minority institutions in the nation with an astronomy option for its physics majors. The university is also part of a consortium that manages a 50-inch telescope in Arizona at the Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Faculty and students control the telescope remotely over the Internet from their computers in Orangeburg as it collects pictures of nearby stars and distant galaxies.

— James T. Hammond

I would have majored in Astro-physics if it was offer when I was at STEAT!

I would have minored in it

Nice move into a nontradional area for most HBCUs!