COLUMBIA, MD, Sept. 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Howard Community College (HCC) President Daria J. Willis today announced the creation of the Thomas P. Clement Professorship of Engineering and Technology Innovation, a faculty position supported by the T&W Foundation and endowed by acclaimed inventor Thomas P. Clement and world-renowned visual artist Wonsook Kim.
Dr. Ghazanfer Bozai, HCC professor and department head of engineering, will serve as the inaugural holder for a five-year term beginning this fall. He will also serve as founding executive director of the Thomas P. Clement Center for Engineering Innovation (TPCCEI), uniting the professorship’s scholarly leadership with the center’s operational leadership.
The professorship recognizes a faculty member in the Department of Engineering and Technology who advances innovation, creativity, ideation, design thinking, and engineering education.
“A named professorship is something people expect to find at a research university. Thomas and Wonsook looked at HCC and saw merit worthy of this level of investment,” said Willis. “A student who invents something in Dragon Country now has a faculty member whose entire role is helping them see it through to patent and manufacturing, and this gift signals to the next generation of engineering faculty that Howard Community College is a place where you can build a meaningful career.”
The center serves as a hub for innovation, creativity, engineering education, and community engagement, built around three interconnected components:
- The Thomas P. Clement Creativity, Ideation, and Innovation Workshop: introduces students to invention as a discipline.
- The Thomas P. Clement Think Tank: gives students a collaborative space to explore and develop ideas.
- The Thomas P. Clement Scholars Summer Program: extends student innovation and research experiences beyond the academic year.
A separate program fund established by Clement and Kim supports research, equipment, and curriculum development toward a 3D construction engineering program, along with leadership development curriculum for architecture, construction, and engineering industries.
“We believe very firmly in students at HCC and those in Howard County Public Schools as leaders for the ideas that will shape our future,” said Clement. “Dr. Bozai has been an amazing partner in bringing this important work to the region, and we look forward to supporting more cutting-edge training, entrepreneurship, and ideation at a grassroots level.”
In July, the college announced that HCC student Troy Murray had received a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office after working through Clement’s workshop, the first such milestone in the program’s history. Earlier this month, the T&W Foundation committed $425,000 to support STEM programs through naming opportunities in six spaces throughout campus, including a lecture hall, simulation suite, radiologic technology skills bays and the Rouse Company Foundation Student Services Hall Executive Suite.
Clement founded Acroventions Laboratories and holds more than 75 patents for surgical devices. Kim is a visual artist whose work has appeared in more than 100 exhibitions across 14 countries. Their giving to Howard Community College began with a $2.5 million gift in 2024 that named Thomas P. Clement Hall, and it has since grown to more than $4.3 million, the largest philanthropic partnership in the college’s history.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
| ABOUT HCC |
| Since 1970, Howard Community College (HCC) has been a preferred college choice for students and families in Howard County, Maryland. A public community college, HCC offers associate degree and certificate programs, as well as workforce development training and continuing education classes, to nearly 22,000 credit and noncredit students each year. The college has been recognized as one of the nation’s top community colleges in two leading 2025–2026 rankings, named the #1 Community College in Maryland and the #1 Community College in the Baltimore Area by Niche, and ranked #32 nationally by WalletHub in its annual Best & Worst Community Colleges study. |
Attachments
- HCC student Troy Murray holds his patented bedside storage device beside Dr. Ghazanfer Bozai in front of a large Stratasys 3D printer in an engineering lab.
- Dr. Ghazanfer Bozai, Professor and Head of the HCC Engineering Department, is the inaugural holder of the Thomas P. Clement Professorship of Engineering and Technology Innovation.
Jarrett Carter Howard Community College 443-518-1800 prmarketing@howardcc.edu
Media gallery
