Georgia Southern University welcomed Georgia Governor Nathan Deal to campus in April 2012 to sign Georgia Senate Bill 396 into law transferring management of the Herty Advanced Materials Development Center to the University.
The Herty Advanced Material Development Center, which is located near the Port of Savannah, is named for the noted chemist, businessman and academic, Charles Herty (1837-1938) who revolutionized the nation's naval stores industry through innovations in turpentine and paper making in the early 1900s.