USC gets $5 million for McNair aerospace center

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Story Created: Oct 25, 2012 at 4:15 AM EDT

Story Updated: Oct 27, 2012 at 8:15 AM EDT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides is announcing a $5 million gift from businesswoman Anita Zucker in a major boost for the school's aerospace research center.

Pastides, who made the announcement Thursday, says the gift endows the Zucker Institute of Aerospace Innovation. It also supports a professorship to direct the McNair Center for Aerospace Innovation and Research.

The center is named after Ronald McNair, the Lake City native and astronaut who died in the space shuttle Challenger explosion of 1986.

The center was established last year after USC benefactor, former trustee and Lake City native Darla Moore provided a $5 million gift toward its creation.

Pastides says Zafer Gurdal of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands is taking the new professorship and will direct the McNair Center.

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