Campus development is on the fast track. NC State’s 1,000-acre, high-tech Centennial Campus -- which houses state-of-the-art labs, classrooms, and government and industry partners -- is one of the fastest growing campuses of its kind in the nation.

Since 1989, eight new buildings, valued at $127 million, have been built, and five more, valued at about $55 million, are under construction.  A $41 million, state-of-the-art conference center and hotel is slated to open by 1999, and plans are also under way for additional office buildings, classrooms, laboratories, residential neighborhoods, a magnet middle school and a monorail link to the main campus.

NC State continues to attract the best and the brightest students. Since 1989, the average GPA of entering NC State freshmen has risen from 3.4 to 3.69. The six-year student graduation rate has increased to 67 percent. And the six-year graduation rate for student athletes has risen to 73 percent. The nation’s most prestigious arts and sciences honor society, Phi Beta Kappa, awarded NC State a chapter in 1994. Less than 12 percent of the nation’s colleges and universities have earned this distinction -- signifying NC State’s emergence as a well-rounded academic community and as one of the nation’s elite public universities.

Following is a sampling of research projects, educational initiatives and outreach programs at NC State University. To learn more about these and other research, extension and outreach efforts, contact News Services at NC State, (919) 515-3470.

Closing in on a Fish Killer -- Since 1991, Pfiesteria piscicida has killed millions of fish and been linked to human illnesses in Mid-Atlantic waters. Efforts to control the organism have been hampered by scientists' inability to identify its toxins. Now, they're closing in. In August 1997, scientists from NC State, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and National Marines Fisheries Service, successfully isolated several of Pfiesteria's main toxins. Next up: Identifying their chemical structure. "Knowing the structure will let us devise tests to detect the toxin and find treatments for it," says NC State's Dr. JoAnn Burkholder, author of 17 scientific papers on Pfiesteria. Her most recent findings suggest there's no time to waste: In purified form, Pfiesteria's toxin can be heated to 170 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours without losing potency, and can kill fish in three minutes.

Electronic Miracle -- Restoring sight to the blind sounds like a miracle to most people, but not to Dr. Wentai Liu, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State University. Liu is collaborating with UNC-Chapel Hill physics doctoral student Elliot McGucken and researchers at Johns Hopkins University on the design of prototypes of a microchip that will function as an artificial retina. The device uses photosensors imbedded in a wafer-thin silicon chip.

The photovoltaic cells convert light images into electrical impulses that stimulate nerve ganglia behind the damaged retina. The device, powered by an external laser, is designed to be as unobtrusive to delicate eye tissue as possible. The prototypes for the project, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Fight for Sight Foundation, are scheduled for testing at Johns Hopkins this year.

Clean and Green -- Most dry cleaners use a toxic solvent called perchloroethylene, or "perc," to clean clothes. Now, there's a better choice. NC State chemical engineer Dr. Joseph DeSimone has developed the world's first nontoxic, recyclable, carbon-dioxide-compatible dry cleaning detergents. Unlike perc, which has been linked to human and environmental health problems, DeSimone's detergents are ecologically sound and give off no toxic fumes. Tests show they clean many fabrics -- including leather and suede -- better than perc. The detergents are marketed by MiCell Technologies Inc., a startup company located at NC State. Similar detergents are being developed for industrial uses, such as cleaning machinery and precision parts. "Our aim is to make ‘green' detergents to replace the more than 30 billion pounds of noxious solvents used each year as cleaning agents," says DeSimone.

New Electronic Nose is Nothing to Sniff at -- Engineers at NC State have developed a electronic nose capable of detecting and analyzing a wide array of smells, from the acrid odor given off by livestock waste, to subtle scents associated with food and beverages. Lead researcher Dr. Troy Nagle says the device -- officially called a "gas sensor array test bed" -- is patterned after the odor-sensing capabilities of the human body. A pump, acting like the lungs, sucks in air from a small plastic bag containing a paper filter saturated with an odor. The smell is conducted by a plastic tube to the noselike electronic sensors, which send information about the properties of the odor to the device's computer "brain." The computer displays each odor's unique pattern on a colorful bar chart -- allowing human interpreters to diagnose what the specific odor is. The device could be used for monitoring air quality near large livestock farms or in industries where noxious or toxic gases are a problem.

Kudzu Meets Its Match -- When the kudzu vine was brought to the United States from Japan more than 50 years ago, horticulturists envisioned it as a low-maintenance ground cover for steep slopes. Today, the rampant pest, which can grow up to a foot a day, covers 7 million acres of land in the South. Nothing short of massive, repeated doses of nonselective herbicides, which kill every plant in the treated area, has been shown to slow its inexorable march.

But NC State entomologist Dr. David Orr may have found an environmentally sound way to curb the vine's spread. He uses a common bug -- actually two bugs eating in tandem -- to defoliate and kill it. "We take soybean looper caterpillar larvae and inject them with the larvae of stingless wasps," he explains. "The caterpillars eat the kudzu. Then the wasps inside the caterpillars hatch and eat the caterpillars from within, killing them before they can pupate into moths and eat nearby crops." As a bonus, Orr has found that caterpillars injected with wasp larvae eat nearly twice as much as normal, "which is good for us," he says, "but terrible for the kudzu."

Paper From Cornstalks -- NC State scientists have found a new use for cornstalks, flax straw and other agricultural residues normally left in the field or flung on compost heaps. They're turning them into recycable paper products. They're also making paper from industrial hemp, a non-psychoactive cousin of marijuana, and kenaf, a fast-growing African form of okra.

"It makes no sense, economically or environmentally, to let fiber from these sources go to waste when we have the technology to turn it into useful products like currency paper, newsprint, diaper fluff, boxes, even fine writing paper," says Medwick V. Byrd, director of applied research in wood and paper science at NC State. As a result of the research, the world's first bleached-corn-fiber mill is scheduled to open soon in Nebraska. Mills for processing fiber from wheat straw, rice straw, flax straw, kenaf and industrial hemp also are planned or have been proposed.

Smog Alert -- Too often, cities get all the blame for air pollution. But a recent article in Science magazine, coauthored by NC State air-quality researcher Dr. Ellis Cowling, suggests that rural areas also contribute to and suffer from unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone, or smog.

Based on air-quality data collected at 85 remote monitoring sites over a six-month period, the article concludes that under newly proposed, more stringent Environmental Protection Agency standards for ozone pollution, 41 rural counties in the eastern United States would join about 100 cities nationwide on the nonattainment list. Among other things, the data "suggests that the detrimental health effects associated with prolonged exposure to smog are more ubiquitous than previously believed, extending beyond the confines of cities and suburbia," Cowling says. He says addressing the problem "will necessitate major change in the nation's pollution control strategies."

Natural Cleansing -- Municipal and industrial wastewater is often high in nutrients that can harm the environment. But long-term studies at five sites by NC State forester Dr. Doug Frederick suggest that up to 90 percent of the nutrients can be removed cost-effectively by spraying the water on fields of trees after primary treatment, chlorination and separation of solids, is completed. The nutrients are taken up by the trees or tied up by root-zone microorganisms, reducing the amount that seeps into groundwater or surface waters. Cost analyses show that the trees remove the nutrients for about half the cost of other secondary treatment processes.

"It's a win-win situation," says Frederick. "Nutrient dumping is reduced, and the sprayed trees grow about twice as fast as normal." Some trees have grown 60 feet in eight years and now can be sold for timber. And since hardwood trees regrow from stumps, Frederick says they can pay dividends for cities, farms and industries, as well as the environment, for generations to come.

‘Detox' Treatment for Harmful Fumes -- NC State chemical engineers have found a new way to detoxify fumes from furniture-finishing plants, petroleum refineries and other industries. They've devised a two-step process that uses beneficial bacteria to eat toxins in the exhaust and convert them into harmless carbon dioxide, cell mass and water. Laboratory tests show that the process, called biomembrane treatment (BMT), can clean up the fumes at a lower cost and in less space than other technologies, without generating secondary pollution.

"Manufacturers told us they needed a system flexible enough to comply with not only current EPA standards but also future ones, which are likely to be more stringent," says researcher Dr. Steven Peretti. "They also said it shouldn't affect production rates or product quality, or require big investments in equipment. MBT fits the bill." NC State has filed for a patent on the system.

Conifer Comeback -- The longleaf pine, one of the Southeast's native trees, now shades less than one-tenth the acreage it did when settlers arriving in the New World first marveled at its beauty and abundance. But the graceful conifer is making a comeback, due to growing demand for its long-lasting pine needles and the efforts of the North Carolina Longleaf Pine Restoration Initiative, an unlikely alliance of conservationists, landowners, pine straw producers and forest managers led by foresters at NC State University and the N.C. Division of Forest Resources. Initiative members, some of whom are former foes, have planted more than 12,000 new acres of the tree; restored existing stands; and hold public workshops on environmentally sound longleaf management. "Groups that, 10 years ago, would sit around a table and yell at each other have come together to manage an ecosystem," says initiative leader Rick Hamilton of NC State.

A ‘Shocking' Discovery About Plants -- A study coauthored by NC State botanist Dr. Eric Davies shows for the first time that electrical signals can stimulate rapid gene expression in plants. The study, published in the European science journal Planta, shows when an electric stimulus is used to wound a tomato leaf, bioelectrical signals are rapidly transmitted from the injured cells to other cells throughout the plant. These signals, known as action potentials, alert the cells to increase their production of naturally occurring pesticides called proteinase inhibitors, which boost the plant's resistance to insect feeding. Scientists have long known that plants possess such a defense mechanism, but until recently, most plant physiologists believed the intercellular warning signals were chemical, not electrical, in nature.

"Proving that a genuine electrical signal can turn on genes is important," says Davies, "because it raises the possibility that we may be able to use electrical stimulation as an environmentally sound means for increasing crop resistance to pests."

For more information on environmental programs or other research at NC State University, visit the NC State home page at and conduct a keyword search for your topic. For full texts of press releases about research and outreach efforts at the university, visit the NC State News Services home page