Happy New Year! The turn of the calendar is often a time to reflect, to take stock of the previous year and plan for the opportunities to come.

Looking ahead to what the year will bring, I know 2023 stands to be very exciting. We’re launching a revision to our strategic plan, one that builds on the successes of the past and accelerates our progress into the future.

We’re investing in our faculty and the world-changing research they’re pursuing. We’re investing in our students and the opportunities that lay the foundation for their continued success. And now we’re investing in our alumni with a new role — Director of Alumni Relations for the College of Science.

Last month, when 202 undergraduate, masters and Ph.D. students in the College of Science received their Clemson University degrees, they joined a 14,000-member-strong alliance of Science alumni. These alumni are the lifeblood of what we so proudly call the Clemson Family.

Our Science alumni give back in myriad ways — speaking at events, mentoring students, acting as ambassadors, supporting Science through philanthropy. And now with the help of Ashtin Lizanich, we’re excited to further enhance this partnership with our alumni.

Keep reading below for an interview with Ashtin. Learn what she loves about working with alumni and what she’s most excited about in her new position. Please help me welcome her to the Clemson Family.

Go Tigers!

As the College of Science’s Director of Alumni Relations, Ashtin Lizanich wants to meet members of the Clemson Family and hear their stories about favorite professors, buildings and memories. Now, it’s time for you to meet her.

The Clemson University Science Outreach Center is using a $2 million grant to develop a graphic novel that will be the basis of an afterschool STEM club. The graphic novel, which tells the story of an impoverished and predominantly Black North Carolina community and how it used science to prompt environmental regulations, will encourage youth to address problems in their own community.

Grant Wilkins, a double major in mathematics and computer engineering, is Clemson University’s first-ever Churchill Scholar. He also could be the reason why you don’t experience blackouts or brownouts during severe weather in the future.

Charini Maladeniya overcame her fear of public speaking to take first place in Clemson’s 2022 3-Minute Thesis competition for her research presentation on transforming roses, plastics and industrial waste into renewable, recyclable building materials.

Fungal pathogens are a major threat to public health as they are becoming increasingly common and resistant to treatment with only four classes of antifungal medicines currently available. Clemson University researcher Lukasz Kozubowski is looking to change that.

Work by Lucas Ayres, Jordan Brooks, Kristi Whitehead and Carlos D. Garcia to detect Staphyloccus aureas using paper-derived electrochemical biosensors was featured on the cover of the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Lauren McIntyre ’15, M ’17 (mathematics) received NASA’s Space Flight Awareness Trailblazer Award for her contributions to the Medical Extensible Dynamic Probabilistic Risk Assessment Tool. MEDPRAT is a computational model that simulates astronaut health during space flight, providing quantitative estimates of medical risk and medical resource utilization given a variety of mission profiles.