Andrew Hurley is co-winner of 2020 Ralph D. Elliott Award

Andrew Hurley is co-winner of the 2020 Ralph D. Elliott Award for Outstanding Service to Off-Campus, Distance and Continuing Education.

Hurley, associate professor of Food, Nutrition and Packaging Sciences in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences, leads the packaging design program at the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics. He also is a Fellow of the Arthur M. Spiro Institute for of Entrepreneurial Leadership.

His graduate students and research group, Package InSight, provide answers to complex package design and marketing questions through the use of eye-tracking and facial coding. Notable outputs have resulted in industry awards, patents, dozens of peer-reviewed articles, and increasing sales by 40 percent for small and large businesses. He has delivered more than 100 presentations on package design globally.

Being the first associate at the Sonoco Institute, Hurley took a lead role in the organization of the facility and established the packaging design workflow that moves student and corporate packaging ideas to market.

Hurley’s nominator also highlighted some of his other contributions to Clemson University, the packaging industry and his students:

• He developed and founded PackagingSchool.com, an online program that has provided thousands of working professionals with continuing education courses to learn the language of packaging through a customized distance education platform.
• He launched AutoPackSummit.com, the only formal arena that brings together automotive manufacturers, parts, and packaging suppliers. The Automotive Packaging Summit has seen a 30 percent growth in attendance each year since 2017, with over 300 professionals slated to attend in 2020.
• During the summers, Hurley hosts PackCamp which brings high school students to campus to spend a week developing a consumer packaged good for the marketplace.
• Each year for nearly a decade, Hurley has taken more than 20 undergraduate Creative Inquiry students to PackExpo, the largest packaging conference in the U.S. The students design the Clemson booth, research information, demonstrate eye-tracking and facial coding studies, and meet with potential employers and partners.