Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park, 1993,
Chemical Engineering

M.S., Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 1988,
Chemical Engineering

B.S.E., The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1986,
Engineering Science - Bioengineering

Dr. Harcum completed her Bachelor of Science and Engineering degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in Engineering Science - Bioengineering. Her graduate studies were in Chemical Engineering; she received her MS from Colorado State University and her PhD from the University of Maryland in College Park. She has worked for the Food and Drug Administration in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Specifically, she worked in the Division of Monoclonal Antibodies within the Office of Therapeutic Review and Research. She was a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Molecular Biology Program at New Mexico State University from 1995-2002. She arrived at Clemson University in 2002 as an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering. She transferred within Clemson to the Department of Bioengineering in 2004.

Dr. Harcum's research interests center primarily around recombinant DNA, bioreactor control, and gene expression. Her lab performs cutting edge research on a wide array of topics ranging from ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass to protein aggregation in Chinese hamster ovary cells to large scale stem cell production to gene expression analysis of microorganisms. Dr. Harcum was invited to the National Academy of Engineering's Fifth Annual Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering, won an NSF CAREER Award, has been awarded the Center for Agricultural Biotechnology Fellowship and the Regent Fellowship, and was featured in the 1996-1997 edition of "Who's Who in Science and Engineering." Dr. Harcum and her collaborators in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Matthew Pepper, Li Wang, Ajay Padmakumar, Dr. Timothy C. Burg, and Dr. Richard E. Groff), won 1st Place in the BlueCompetition 2013 sponsored by BlueSens of Germany.

In collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, the University of Delaware, and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Dr. Harcum and Clemson University were awarded an NSF- Industrial/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) grant entitled the Advanced Mammalian Biomanufacturing Innovation Center (AMBIC). AMBIC is focused on reducing the time and cost of culturing the cells needed to make biopharmaceuticals. Additionally, Dr. Harcum is leading the team at Clemson as part of the newly form National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL). NIIMBL is led by the University of Delaware and is one of twelve Manufacturing USA Institutes. NIIMBL is focused on accelerating biopharmaceutical manufacturing innovation at all phases and educating and training a world-leading biopharmaceutical manufacturing workforce. Clemson researchers are very excited to be involved in this important initiative.

Click the links to learn more about NSF-I/UCRCs, AMBIC Research, NIIMBL, or Manufacturing USA.