Sherman College News

Chiropractor and Administrator Bob Irwin, D.C., Receives Service to Sherman College Award

Vice President for Academic Affairs Bob Irwin, D.C., recently received the Service to Sherman College Award from Sherman College of Chiropractic in recognition of his extraordinary, unselfish and noteworthy service to the college. The award was presented May 27 in Spartanburg, SC, as part of the college’s annual homecoming program.

Dr. Irwin graduated from Life College of Chiropractic in 1979. Following many years in private practice in Hendersonville, NC, he joined the Sherman College faculty in 1998 where he served as lead instructor in several courses and then as an attending faculty doctor in the Chiropractic Health Center. In 2005 he was promoted to dean of clinical sciences and assistant professor of clinical sciences. In 2007 he served as vice president for enrollment services before accepting the position of vice president for academic affairs, where he serves the college today.

In addition to his responsibilities in academic affairs, Dr. Irwin is also the college’s accreditation liaison with the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). His thorough understanding of accreditation standards and the importance of demonstrating compliance with those standards has been an invaluable asset to the college. His experience in this area includes preparing progress reports in response to site team visits for both the CCE and SACS and application for re-affirmation for SACS. He serves on nearly a dozen college committees and chairs two.

Dr. Irwin is a member of the Sherman College Board of Regents, a group of individuals dedicated to supporting quality chiropractic education. In addition, Sherman College of Chiropractic named him both Faculty Member of the Year and Star of the Quarter in 2003. He received the Speakers Award from the American Black Chiropractic Association in 2009.

He is a member of the Council on Chiropractic Education Standards Review Committee Task Force, the Federation of Chiropractic Licensing Boards, the Providers of Continuing Education (PACE) Review Team, and Chief Academic Officer’s group of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges. He has served as a peer reviewer for the Sherman College Research Committee as well as for Lippincott/Williams & Wilkins Publishing for chiropractic textbooks and the Association of Chiropractic Colleges’ Research Agenda Conference (ACC-RAC).

Irwin has also been a speaker at various continuing education events in the profession, including K.R. Jones Memorial Scholarship Philosophy Conference, the South Carolina Chiropractic Association, the American Black Chiropractic Association, Sherman College’s Success Colloquium and Sherman College Lyceum.

Sherman College named its 2010 award recipients May 27-29 as part of its Lyceum, an annual continuing education and homecoming event which is attended by hundreds of chiropractors throughout the U.S. and internationally. Lyceum is held on the college’s campus in Spartanburg, SC, and involves three days of seminars, special events and other programs.

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For more information, please contact:
Karen Rhodes, Director of Public Relations
Sherman College of Chiropractic
P.O. Box 1452 / 2020 Springfield Road
Spartanburg, S.C. 29304
Telephone: 800-849-8771, ext. 242

Pengju (George) Luo, MD, MS, PhD Named Director of Research

Dr. Luo brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to his new position. He has served as a valuable faculty member (Assistant Professor) at Sherman since 2006 and was recently promoted to Associate Professor. He served as a research and teaching assistant at Clemson University and currently is an adjunct assistant professor at Clemson where he will continue his research activities.

 His education includes:

• 2006    PH.D. - Microbiology, Clemson University 
• 2003    M.S. – Microbiology, Clemson University
• 1997 – M.D. – Clinical Medicine, Tongji Medical university (now known as “Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science & Technology”) Wuhan, China

Research Interests

Research interests are in the interdisciplinary field of biological sciences and nanotechnology and focus on bioapplications of various nanomaterials, including the following areas:

• Antimicrobial applications of various nanomaterials such as nanoparticles and nanotubes.
• Detection of pathogenic microorganisms using various nanomaterials conjugated with different biomolecules (e.g. antibody, carbohydrate)
• Biomedical applications of various nanomaterials (e.g. the use of  for cancer detection).

Dr. Luo has 9 years of research experience including:

• 24 Published journal papers and book chapters
• 9 Peer Reviewed conference abstracts
• Funded research support
• Designing research projects
• Drafting grant proposals
• Manuscript publication
• Reviewing grant proposals
• Peer reviewer for scientific papers
• Supervising student research

Dr. Luo has received many honors and awards including but not limited to:

• Full member of Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society
• Alpha Epsilon Lambda
• Merit scholarship award for outstanding academic achievement, Chinese Christian Herald Crusades

Professional Affiliations

• Member, American Society for Microbiology, 2003 – present
• Member, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, 2007
• Reviewer, Journal of Applied Microbiology, 2006 – present
• Reviewer, Letters in Applied Microbiology, 2006 – present

Dr. Luo told me he is “excited about this opportunity to develop, coordinate and monitor research activities and a chance to contribute his experience to Sherman College in a nurturing learning environment.”  He will work closely with Dr. Hart and the faculty of Sherman College to deepen his knowledge of chiropractic and how his skills can contribute to the college mission and faculty members’ research and scholarly activity goals.

Go to http://www.sherman.edu/edu/research/