Website for Penn State Center for Sports Surfaces up and running

16 Jul, 2010 Athletic Turf News

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA — You can now access the website (http://ssrc.psu.edu) for the new Center for Sports Surfaces at Penn State University. The site contains valuable information concerning sports field surfaces and safety. More information will be posted to the site as it is developed.

Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is partnering (a 5-year commitment) with synthetic turf manufacturer FieldTurf in developing this facility dedicated to sports surface research. The research will focus on synthetic turf, running tracks and indoor sports surfaces, and is expected to further accelerate safety within the synthetic sports surfacing industry.

The new Center for Sports Surface Research will be an intercollege program managed within the College of Agricultural Sciences' Department of Crop and Soil Sciences.

The director of the Center (pictured) is Dr. Andrew McNitt, associate professor of soil science. The manager of the Center is Thomas Serensits.

"Our partnership with Penn State brings the global synthetic turf leader together with the global research leader in all types of turf," said Joe Fields, chief executive officer of FieldTurf. "The original inspiration for FieldTurf was to provide a surface that would enable athletes to attain maximum performance while minimizing injuries, and we believe that this partnership will help ensure that we continue to lead our industry in developing surfaces that deliver unequaled performance and safety to the athletes that we serve."

In addition to McNitt's experience and body of work, the Center also will incorporate the research endeavors of other Penn State faculty and students.

"By combining the resources of Penn State's faculty, staff and students with the access to additional academic areas of the university for research, we expect to achieve an unprecedented opportunity and breeding ground to take developments within the artificial turf industry to an even higher and safer level," Fields said.

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