Research/Faculty Resources

Research and scholarly activity are fundamental to the role of the faculty and essential to the attainment of the university’s goals of academic excellence and national prominence. Research is a crucial part of graduate instruction and has profound effects upon the currency and vitality of undergraduate education. This exploration of the boundaries of knowledge is undertaken by faculty in the various departments and by the research units included in this section.

Office of Research & Economic Development

Center for Computation & Technology

The Center for Computation and Technology was created in response to a funding initiative created by Governor Mike Foster and the Louisiana Legislature to invest in university research and teaching programs as engines of economic development.

The center draws on the established areas of expertise at LSU in computer science, engineering, mathematics, physics, biological sciences, mass communication, coastal studies, information systems and decision sciences, and digital media and experimental music via the AVATAR Program (Arts, Visualization, Advanced Technologies, and Research). By uniting researchers from diverse disciplines, ideas and expertise are disseminated across LSU departments to foster knowledge and invention. Likewise, this interdisciplinary research relationship invigorates computational science and technology, providing essential tools and resources to accelerate discovery.

CCT supports advanced cyberinfrastructure, high-speed networks, high-performance computing, advanced data storage and analysis, and hardware and software development for both the university and the state of Louisiana in academia and industry.

The center also looks to create new areas of research excellence in order to provide the state and nation with graduates who are equipped to handle the growing technology infrastructure.

Center for Energy Studies

The Center for Energy Studies provides analysis, research, information, and technology transfer on energy and environmental issues that are important to Louisiana. The center is composed of divisions for Policy Analysis, Energy Information and Data, Minerals Processing Research, and Research and Development.

Also reporting through the center’s executive director are the Louisiana Geological Survey, which includes the Basin Research Institute as its Oil & Gas Division and the Radiation Safety Office. Although independent, these units have either a state legislative or federally mandated mission, an applied resource policy focus, and a strong commitment to public service. Neither the center nor its associated independent units have academic programs, but they frequently employ graduate assistants and work with staff or faculty from academic units on projects of mutual interest.

The center, created by the Louisiana Legislature in 1982, is the state’s only officially recognized energy studies center for public higher education. The center conducts, encourages, and facilitates energy-related research and analysis concerning problems and issues affecting Louisiana’s economy, environment, and citizenry. Whether conducted by its staff or by others it supports, the goal of the center is to provide a balanced, objective, and timely treatment of issues with potentially important consequences for Louisiana. The center provides information and analysis that respond to the needs of the legislature, public agencies, and business and civic groups.

Louisiana Geological Survey

Founded officially in 1934 by Act 131 of the Louisiana legislature, the Louisiana Geological Survey (LGS) is the premier geological research institution in the state of Louisiana which had its beginnings in 1869. Always housed on the campus of Louisiana State University (LSU) the LGS was originally part of the Louisiana Department of Conservation, and later was a division of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. It was transferred by the Louisiana legislature’s HB 2353 to LSU in 1997 and now reports through the Executive Director of the Center for Energy Studies to the LSU Vice Chancellor for Research & Economic Development.

The LGS carries out applied and fundamental geologic research in the areas of Louisiana’s surface and subsurface geology, coastal geology and processes, petroleum geology, alternate energy resources (geopressured-geothermal), environmental geology, mineral resources, and ground water. LGS does statewide geologic mapping, producing maps and reports designed to encourage both economic development and environmental protection. The LGS also studies geologic hazards, including active faulting, producing maps and reports designed to identify such hazards and to minimize their impacts. Earth science educational materials are provided to school teachers when requested. The LGS works cooperatively on research grants and contracts with several state and federal agencies including the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Transportation & Development, the Office of Emergency Preparedness, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Basin Research Energy Section of the LGS includes stratigraphic research laboratories; a computer/plotting laboratory; petrographic laboratories equipped for thin-section preparation and carbonate and siliciclastic studies; and conference rooms and storage space. A separate well-log library, a core storage facility with a work lab equipped with saws, and other core processing and photographic equipment are located nearby on campus. The LGS core repository and well log library (called the LGS Resource Center) are an integral part of the Louisiana Museum of Natural History. Access to other laboratory facilities for geochemical, isotope, SEM, EM, XRD, sedimentology, and paleontological analyses is available in the nearby Department of Geology & Geophysics.

The LGS has a well-recognized Cartography Section that produces maps, atlases, illustrations, slides, LGS publications and exhibits, both in support of LGS research and for other LSU departments and state agencies. The LGS cartography section, well equipped with computer equipment, plotters, and GIS facilities, has produced several maps, including the official state map of Louisiana, an oil and gas map, and a Louisiana Shoreline Change map, 1937-2000. Several maps designed and produced by the LGS Cartographic Section have won national awards.

The Water and Environmental Section works primarily on modeling and geologic characterization of the various aquifers in the state, on projects requiring analysis of water from various locations, and effects of major amounts of water withdrawals from the aquifers for industrial and other purposes.

The LGS is the only institution in the state which currently does Geologic Mapping of the State. Derivative maps from geologic maps are utilized by industry for various purposes. This work is carried out by the Geologic Mapping and Mineral Resources Section. LGS reviews permits for drilling wells in the coastal and wetland areas of the state in order to reduce environmental impacts associated with drilling and this work is done by the Geologic Review Section of LGS.

In performing its applied mission and tasks the LGS is also charged with effectively transferring geological information to the citizens of the state through the production of maps, bulletins, reports, newsletters, sponsored short courses, professional presentations, and publications. The LGS receives and answers a large number of inquiries from the public related to geologic matters, and its publications are available for sale at nominal prices.

Minerals Processing Research Division

The Minerals Processing Research Division, supported by funds from federal and state agencies and private organizations, was established at LSU in 1979. The division conducts research on minerals processing, related business and legal issues, and environmental matters.

This research is directed at the chief minerals in the state and region: oil and natural gas, sulfur, salt, and lignite. These mineral resources are among Louisiana’s most valuable assets.

Radiation Safety Office

Authorization for Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College to possess, store, and use sources of radiation is stipulated in a broad-scope Radioactive Material License issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, which has vested responsibility from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission within the State of Louisiana. The broad-scope license allows the university maximum flexibility in the use of sources of radiation for teaching and research activities through the operation of an internal radiation safety and protection program. Administrative authorization from the university is contained in Permanent Memorandum-30 (PM-30). Under the direction and supervision of the Radiation Safety Committee, the Radiation Safety Office is responsible for implementing radiological control policies and ensuring safe practice in order not only to be fully in compliance with the federal and state regulations, but also to assure individual well-being and the integrity of the university.

Approval of the Radiation Safety Office must be obtained for all procurement of licensed radioactive materials and radiation producing equipment, all teaching and laboratory uses, research and development projects, as well as any other activities with potential radiological hazards, all contracts and grant proposals involving sources of radiation, all personnel who will directly use sources of radiation, and all facilities, construction, outfitting, and renovation involving sources of radiation.

The radiation protection program is conducted in such a manner so that radiation exposure to faculty, staff, students, the general public, and the environment will be maintained as low as reasonably achievable and that no radiation exposure will be received without societal benefit. This will be accomplished without hindering legitimate research or realistic teaching objectives. Professional health physicists equipped with a full spectrum of state-of-the-art radioanalytical instrumentation as well as high energy irradiation and neutron activation facilities are available for consultation and research development to support a broad range of radiation applications.

Stephenson National Center for Security Research & Training

The Stephenson National Center for Security Research & Training (SNCSRT) has been established to coordinate efforts in security research and training. The university is currently a leader in providing training on anti-terrorism and counter-terrorism techniques and regularly supports projects initiated by state and federal law enforcement agencies. The purpose of the center is to:

• establish a coordinated, university-based system to promote interaction and collaboration toward the common objectives of safety and security;
• coordinate the activities of existing units that focus on security and emergency preparedness;
• create a collaborative structure that incorporates faculty expertise; and
• partner with private and public entities.

National Center for Biomedical Research & Training

The National Center for Biomedical Research & Training (NCBRT), Academy of Counter-terrorist Education (ACE) at LSU is a primary component of the Stephenson National Center for Security Research & Training (SNCSRT). The NCBRT is a national leader in the development and delivery of a wide range of training programs in the areas of homeland security, domestic and international terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and high-consequence events. Since 1998, the NCBRT has developed more than 40 courses certified by the Department of Homeland Security for the emergency responder community. Course topics include: prevention and deterrence, tactical operations, law enforcement operations, campus emergencies, emergency response to biological incidents, sampling, and agroterrorism, just to name a few. These courses are delivered year round by NCBRT adjunct instructors to law enforcement, fire and emergency personnel; medical and public health professionals; and local, state, and national lawmakers throughout the United States and its territories.

Stephenson Disaster Management Institute

The mission of LSU’s Stephenson Disaster Management Institute is to save the lives of people and animals by continuously improving the practice of disaster management through leadership in applied research and executive education. Founded in 2007 in response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, SDMI is a part of the Stephenson National Center for Security Research and Training at LSU. SDMI is hosted by the E. J. Ourso College of Business for enhanced collaboration with the private sector community.

The center’s goals include:

• bringing business principles and research to bear on disasters;
• producing applied research and disseminating best practices to the business and practitioner communities;
• building partnerships between academic scholars, emergency management practitioners, and the private sector

The institute enhances LSU’s ability to focus its existing programs and research capacity on the particular problems of disaster management. SDMI’s projects create a collaboration between the public and private sectors to reduce the consequences of disasters by building community resilience.

Carrol L. Herring Fire & Emergency Training Institute

The Carrol L. Herring Fire & Emergency Training Institute (FETI) is Louisiana’s leading agency in providing basic, advanced, and specialized training to fire fighters and emergency service providers. Training centers in Baton Rouge and Minden, combined with a regional staff, enables FETI to deliver nationally recognized courses to individuals, municipalities, the Department of Defense, and private industries in all areas of the state. Courses include instruction in aircraft, structural, marine, and OSHA-approved industrial firefighting, hazardous materials mitigation, and various specialized command and control courses developed at the National Fire Academy. The rescue program offers advanced courses in Urban Search and Rescue, basic rope, confined space rescue, and other specialized technical rescue courses.

Because of the increasing demand for pre-hospital advanced life support care, FETI’s Emergency Medical Services Program has expanded its course offerings from basic emergency medical care to paramedic, advanced cardiac life support, and pediatric advanced life support. The paramedic course includes extensive study in subject areas including, but not limited to: intravenous/intraosseous therapy, pharmacology, cardiology, and endotracheal (advanced) airway management. The didactic component consists of 500 hours of lecture and lab, while the clinical component requires 630 hours of hospital and ambulance experience under the watchful eye of an assigned preceptor. Upon successful course completion, students are eligible to take the National Registry of EMT’s practical and written examination. Once registered, candidates may apply for State of Louisiana certification as an EMT-Paramedic. FETI is currently in the application process for national accreditation of the paramedic course.

The Firefighter and Emergency Responder Certification Program offers certification for career and volunteer firefighters at all levels based on the National Fire Protection Association Professional Qualification Standards. The certification procedure, which involves a practical and written evaluation process, is offered throughout the state, both on-demand and on predetermined test dates. The Certification Program is accredited by the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress (IFSAC) and the International Board on Fire Service Professional Qualifications (Pro Board). Additional information about the programs at FETI can be found on the website.

National Center for Disaster Fraud

The National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) was established in 2005 as the Katrina Fraud Task Force with members from 19 federal agencies. Due to the high volume of disaster activity, the Katrina Fraud Task Force became the National Center for Disaster Fraud in 2008. It is currently funded through a Cooperative Agreement between LSU and the U.S. Department of Justice. Fiscal Year 2011 funding level of $1.1 million includes the interagency agreements from:

• U.S. Department of Justice
• Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General
• Recovery & Accountability Transparency Board
• Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General

Law Enforcement Online/INFRAGARD

Law Enforcement Online (LEO) is an online (real-time), controlled-access communications and information sharing data repository. It provides a focal point for electronic Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) communication and information sharing for federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies. LEO supports anti-terrorism, intelligence, law enforcement, criminal justice, and public safety communities. LEO currently supports a user base of more than 120,000 account holders.

InfraGard (IG) provides a mechanism for law enforcement entities and private sector members to share data internally and externally with critical infrastructure personnel. The system provides an Internet accessible focal point for electronic SBU communications and information sharing for InfraGard members.

Coastal Studies Institute

Coastal Studies Institute, CSI, was established as an interdisciplinary and field-oriented research organization in 1952 to address the US Navy’s needs, with long-term funding from the Geography Programs of the Office of Naval Research. Over the years, we have broadened our sources for research support, and CSI has received research funding through competitive grants and contracts from a wide range of federal and state agencies and industrial partners. CSI was expanded and reorganized in 2012, with support from the LSU Office of Research and Economic Development. CSI is now a central organization and point of contact at LSU that focuses on interdisciplinary coastal science and engineering, spanning the expertise of faculty in multiple colleges and schools. We actively promote coastal activities at LSU to state and federal agencies.

Our research is interdisciplinary, including coastal geology, engineering, and oceanography, emphasizing deltaic, shelf, and slope sedimentary environments. Our research capabilities include a wide range of field operations, physical and numerical modeling, and laboratory facilities, from deep-ocean moorings to beach monitoring, wave tanks, physical models, high-performance computing, and biogeochemical analyses. Our primary research goal is to develop scientific knowledge, engineering principles, and planning tools to facilitate a resilient human presence and renaissance on deltaic coasts, which are threatened worldwide by land loss and declining water and sediment supplies. An additional broader goal is to enhance LSU research efforts in coastal and shelf-sea processes and products around the world.

CSI recognizes that sustaining human presence on deltaic coastlines is essential to healthy coastal societies and economies. Accordingly, CSI scientists and engineers work closely with the Coastal Sustainability Studio and other LSU units and faculty with coastal research in social science and economics to foster a fully integrated LSU approach to the study, conservation, and growth of coastal communities and environments.

Intellectual Property, Commercialization & Development

The objective of LSU’s Office of Intellectual Property, Commercialization & Development (OIP) is to commercialize the university’s intellectual property–new ideas, inventions, and discoveries. This includes obtaining patents and copyrights and seeking licensees and business partners in the U.S. and worldwide to commercialize that technology for the benefit of society, the university, and the inventors.

Intercollege Environmental Cooperative

The mission of the Intercollege Environmental Cooperative is to facilitate collaborative relationships that span traditional college and disciplinary boundaries and enhance the research, teaching, and public outreach that is necessary to address effectively today’s complex second and third generation environmental stakeholders, decision makers, and research sponsors throughout the state, region, and nation.

The Intercollege Environmental Cooperative provides a platform for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration among LSU researchers and their partners, improves communication and exchange of ideas among environmental researchers and educators across traditional departmental and college/school boundaries, and works to establish ties with industrial organizations that can benefit from increased interaction with LSU on environmental issues.

Institute for Advanced Materials

The Institute for Advanced Materials (IAM) will serve as a Materials Science and Engineering umbrella organization that will foster interdisciplinary research and education, which will enable development of advanced materials needed for a broad variety of life-transforming applications. The objective of IAM is to make sure that LSU is a major player in the development of materials for the 21st century. The institute will manage the new Shared Instrumentation Facility (SIF), which is a partnership between ORED, the Colleges of Science and Engineering, 13 departments, and over 100 faculty involved in Materials Research and Engineering on the LSU campus. SIF will pool the resources on campus and provide high-quality characterization capabilities with an affordable fee structure. The educational component of IAM is associated with the “Graduate Certificate in Materials Science and Engineering,” which will provide our graduate students with an opportunity to receive specialized interdisciplinary education and training in contemporary materials science and engineering.

The institute will reach out to other academic institutions in the southeast and to the industrial sector to create working collaborations with the faculty at LSU and with SIF. IAM encompasses most of the areas of focus in the Battelle Report on economic development in Louisiana.

J. Bennett Johnston, Sr., Center for Advanced Microstructures & Devices

The J. Bennett Johnston, Sr. Center for Advanced Microstructures & Devices (CAMD) is an experimental facility for science and engineering that is centered on a 1.3 GeV electron storage ring. This electron accelerator produces a broad spectral range of electromagnetic radiation, essentially light, from the infrared to X-rays. This light is used for developing advanced materials for new energy technologies, for evaluating environmental issues and remediation, for biomedical applications including new drugs and cancer therapy, and for producing microstructures that are at the heart of new miniaturized devices.

Life Course and Aging Center

By the year 2020, more than 20 percent of the population is expected to reach the age of retirement. With the increase in the number of older adults living in Louisiana, there will be a greater need to ensure the successful aging of the population of our state. The Life Course and Aging Center (LCAC) recognizes that successful aging begins at birth and continues through the rest of our lives. Therefore, its researchers are committed to identifying the keys to successful aging and educating the public about these important issues.

The LCAC’s mission is to promote collaborative research activities across many fields including the biological, social, and psychological sciences, develop life course and aging education and curriculum, and collaborate with child and senior service organizations throughout the state. LCAC faculty members represent six colleges and 14 departments and programs at LSU. Areas of research include cognitive processes and aging, early childhood development, education across the lifespan, interpersonal relations across the lifespan, lifespan development and public policy, physical processes and aging, and sociological aspects of aging.

Louisiana Space Consortium

The Louisiana Space Consortium (LaSPACE), supported by funds from the National Aeronautics & Space Administration and the Louisiana Board of Regents, is a group of Louisiana institutions of higher education working with the two state educational boards, business/industry, nonprofit organizations, and a local government partner.

The goal of LaSPACE is to enhance space and aerospace related research, technology, education, and public awareness throughout the state and to promote mathematics and science education, workforce development of aerospace professionals, diversity, and economic development. This goal is accomplished through competitive awards to researchers, fellowships for graduate students, mentored research assistantships for undergraduates, outreach to K-12 teachers and students, and public awareness events. LaSPACE is Louisiana’s representative to the National Network of Space Grant Consortia, a congressionally mandated federal/state partnership that is administered by NASA. This national network encompasses every state in the nation plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

Louisiana Sea Grant College Program

The Louisiana Sea Grant College Program is part of the National Sea Grant College Program, a congressionally mandated federal/state endeavor that is administered by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The national program network includes 32 lead institutions and consortia, based in coastal and Great Lakes states, involving more than 330 U.S. colleges, universities, laboratories, and private entities in research, training/education, technology transfer, and advisory service activities focused on coastal and marine issues.

The Louisiana Sea Grant College Program is responsible for administering all activities approved by NOAA for Sea Grant funding in Louisiana. The mission of the Louisiana program is to provide knowledge, trained personnel, and public awareness needed to wisely and effectively develop and manage coastal and marine areas and resources in a manner that will assure sustainable economic and societal benefits. This goal is pursued by supporting and developing selected capabilities in the Louisiana university community and, as appropriate, drawing on those in the national program network. The work requires:

• designing and conducting research, technology transfer, extension, and educational activities involving a broad range of natural science, engineering, economic, legal, public policy, and sociological expertise, and
• extensive cooperation with pertinent federal, state, business, and citizen groups. Providing a base of fundamental research and bringing the results to the market by enhancing existing businesses and growing new businesses are key program elements.

The Louisiana Sea Grant NOAA-funded core program supports individual projects at universities throughout Louisiana. These projects typically support graduate students, as well as provide undergraduate students with the opportunity to work on research-related activities. There is also an annual, national competition for approximately 50 Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships that provides selected graduate students a unique opportunity to spend a year working in host offices of the U.S. Congress and federal agencies located in the Washington, D.C. area. Core program activities are supplemented with projects funded by various federal and state agencies that have mutual goals and interests. Private sector support for the program is exemplified by the John P. Laborde Endowed Chair for Sea Grant Research and Technology Transfer that brings internationally and nationally renowned scientists to LSU for periods of one semester to two years to work on marine and coastal issues identified as critical to Louisiana.

In 1978, LSU was named a Sea Grant College, the 13th university in the nation to be so designated and the highest classification attainable in the program. This status was reaffirmed by national performance evaluation teams in 2011. LSU is currently one of only a handful of universities in the U.S. designated as a land-grant, space-grant, and sea-grant institution.

Sponsored Programs

The Office of Sponsored Programs, an administrative unit of the Office of Research & Economic Development, provides advice and support to the LSU community in the acquisition and administration of externally funded projects to further the instruction, research, and public service mission of the university. The office provides institutional endorsement for proposals, negotiates terms and conditions of awards with sponsors, executes agreements on behalf of the institution, and prepares and negotiates subawards. The office also conducts seminars and workshops on federal, state, and institutional requirements; proposal development; and project management.

Office of Academic Affairs

Center for Community Engagement, Learning & Leadership

The Center for Community Engagement, Learning & Leadership (CCELL) promotes service-learning, a cornerstone of LSU’s structured approach to community engagement designed to advance learning outcomes and develop leaders who practice their discipline with the highest sense of civic responsibility.

CCELL facilitates educational experiences in which students take part in credit-bearing, organized service activities that meet community needs. Service-learning offers students “hands-on” learning, allowing them to serve others, gain a deeper understanding of course material, improve their leadership skills, acquire greater self-knowledge, and increase their sense of connection to the community.

CCELL provides a number of services to faculty who are engaged in service-learning, such as assisting in the recruitment of community-based partners; consulting with faculty in syllabus design, course development, and grant-writing; and functioning as a liaison between faculty and their community partners. The Community Engagement Advisory Council, comprised primarily of senior LSU faculty with student and community representation, articulates and promotes the objectives of CCELL. The council develops strategies and provides leadership to advance service-learning funding, curriculum development, and scholarship.

Communication Across the Curriculum (CxC)

LSU Communication across the Curriculum (CxC) is a nationally recognized academic enhancement program that promotes deeper learning of undergraduate course content and advanced instruction on effective, discipline-specific communication.

CxC provides the following services for all undergraduates:

• rhetorical and technical support on writing, speaking, visual, and technological communication-intensive projects via discipline-specific CxC studios across campus;
• communication skills-building workshops;
• recognition on transcripts of completion of communication-intensive (CI) courses within the disciplines;
• opportunities for advanced learning and recognition through the Distinguished Communicator certification program

CxC provides the following services for all faculty:

• interdisciplinary learning communities focused on advancing undergraduate learning and teaching;
• workshops on integrating communication-intensive (CI) pedagogy into courses and curricula;
• consultations on syllabus, assignment and assessment design;
• cooperative publishing of research on learning and teaching of communication within the disciplines;
• assistance with grants that target improving students’ discipline-specific communication skills.

A faculty-led advisory council, appointed by the provost, sets CxC policy and standards and shapes program development.

Gordon A. Cain Center for Scientific, Technological, Engineering & Mathematical Literacy

The Cain Center for Scientific, Technological, Engineering & Mathematical Literacy provides support for Louisiana educators who are working to prepare citizens who are literate in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines to support 21st century economic and societal needs. The center fosters cross-disciplinary collaborations made possible through its joint sponsorship by the Colleges of Human Sciences and Education, Engineering, Humanities & Social Sciences, and Science.

The goals of the center include:

• providing leadership for interdisciplinary research and development in the teaching and learning of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines at all educational levels;
• disseminating research and practice that leads to high student achievement, especially in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines;
• creating opportunities for collaboration across disciplines and with K-12 educational practitioners in investigating, developing, and implementing strategies for enhancing teaching and learning in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines; and
• influencing policy concerning the teaching and learning of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.

LSU Museum of Art

The LSU Museum of Art is a dynamic venue located on the fifth floor of the Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge. In addition to holding one of the largest university-affiliated art collections in the South, the museum presents world-class touring exhibitions of regional, American and European painting, sculpture, decorative arts, works on paper, and photography. The museum’s 5000-work collection is highlighted in galleries of American and British portraiture and decorative arts, American Arts and Crafts pottery, Chinese Jade, and modern and contemporary paintings and sculptures, with a focus on Southern artists. The LSU Museum of Art is a gateway connecting the university and the community at large to a diverse range of artistic styles and periods. The Museum’s exhibits are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays; and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Admission fee is $5 and free to museum members. It is closed on major holidays. The museum offers free admission on the first Sunday and second Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

LSU Libraries

The LSU Libraries offer students and faculty strong support for learning and research through combined physical collections including more than three million titles, 15,000 linear feet of archives and manuscripts, 500,000+ maps, comprehensive collections of state and federal documents, and millions of microforms. Extending beyond the physical walls, the Libraries provide access to hundreds of thousands of online books, articles, and databases for faculty and students, supporting research, teaching, and public service. The LSU Libraries’ subject strengths include Louisiana materials, sugar culture and technology, Southern history, agriculture, petroleum engineering, plant pathology, natural history, and various aspects of aquaculture including crawfish, wetlands research, and marine biology. Subject specialist librarians offer personalized research assistance and work with other teaching faculty to tailor library instruction sessions to meet the needs of their students, both in the classroom and online.

The LSU Libraries belong to the prestigious Association of Research Libraries, which includes the top 115 academic libraries in the U.S. and Canada; the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL); Lyrasis, the nation’s largest regional membership organization for libraries; and the Louisiana Academic Library Information Network Consortium (LALINC). The Libraries play a leadership role in LOUIS, the Louisiana Online University Information System, a statewide consortium housed by LSU’s Information Technology Services.

Middleton Library is the main library, with special collections housed in the adjacent Hill Memorial Library.

In addition to print and digital resources, Middleton Library offers research and instruction services, circulation services including equipment check-out for students, hundreds of computers, wireless access, quiet and group study areas, presentation practice rooms, interlibrary borrowing services, electronic classrooms, and a coffee shop. Within Middleton, the Carter Music Resources Center and Education Resources house specialized collections and resources in those fields. Middleton also houses the Shell Tutorial Center, offering students free assistance with homework, test preparation, and study strategies.

LSU Libraries’ U.S. Regional Depository Library collection and the U.S. Patent Depository Library collection are housed in Middleton Library. The library has been a depository for publications of the federal government since 1907 and became a Regional Depository in 1964. The patent collection includes all patents issued from 1871 to the present. The department has an extensive collection of scientific and technical reports from the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Technical Information Service, serves as an ASERL “Center of Excellence” for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers documents.

The LSU Libraries’ Special Collections division (lib.lsu.edu/special), housed in Hill Memorial Library, provides access to historical, cultural, and artistic treasures and a wealth of research materials in fields ranging from the humanities and social sciences to the natural sciences, agriculture, aquaculture, the fine arts, and design. One of the primary strengths of Special Collections resides in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC), an outstanding collection of materials documenting the history and culture of the region. It provides rare and early imprints pertaining to the exploration and colonization of the region; books on Louisiana subjects and Louisiana authors from all eras; Louisiana newspapers on microfilm; the papers of Louisiana political figures, most notably members of Congress and state government, including the Long family; more than 5,000 manuscript collections, which include the personal papers and records of individuals, businesses, professions, and organizations important to the region; and extensive photographic collections. Special Collections serves as a full depository for Louisiana state documents, including what is perhaps the most comprehensive collection in existence.

University Archives, administered by Special Collections and housed in Hill Memorial Library, is the official repository for all permanent noncurrent records of academic and administrative units of the university.

The Rare Book Collection is wide-ranging and eclectic in nature, with concentrations in 17th and 18th century English literature and history; book arts and the history of the book; New World exploration and travel; economic history; science fiction and fantasy; and many other areas supporting teaching and research at LSU.

The E. A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection was donated to the LSU Libraries in 1971, in memory of Edward Avery McIlhenny, whose private library forms the core of the collection. Rich in ornithological and botanical art, it is an exceptional resource for researchers in the history of those fields. High points in this collection include John James Audubon’s double-elephant folio Birds of America, and the “Native Flora of Louisiana” collection of original watercolor drawings by internationally renowned botanical artist Margaret Stones.

The T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History is also administered as part of the LSU Libraries Special Collections. Established in 1991, the Williams Center supports and encourages the collection, preservation, and dissemination of the social, political, cultural, and economic history of Louisiana through the use of recorded interviews. Recordings and transcripts generated by the program and its affiliated researchers are deposited in the LLMVC.

Hill Memorial Library also features two floors of exhibition gallery space and frequently hosts cultural events, including films, lectures, and other activities. Exhibits change regularly. Visitors to campus are welcome and encouraged to visit this historic building.

Special Collections publishes the Civil War Book Review, the quarterly journal of record for new or newly reprinted books about the antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction eras. It is available online at www.cwbr.com.

Since 2000, the Libraries have competed successfully for more than $1.7 million in grant funding to digitize and make freely accessible materials from our collections, ranging from historical Louisiana newspapers, manuscripts, maps, and photographs, to complete sets of the Louisiana Conservationist and The Sugar Bulletin. Selected materials from the Libraries are available online through the Louisiana Digital Library, www.louisianadigitallibrary.org, the Internet Archives, and the Library of Congress’s site Chronicling America (chroniclingamerica.loc.gov)

LSU Online

LSU Online extends access to higher education by offering the highest quality online programs, taught by highly qualified faculty. LSU Online seeks to provide distance learning opportunities to students all around the globe.

LSU Online provides the following services for all LSU Online teaching faculty:

• Instructional design support
• LSU Online Moodle support
• ProctorU services (for exam proctoring)
• Instructional Connections (academic coaches for large sections of courses)
• Echo 360 lecture capture
• Support via the Faculty Technology Center (FTC)
• Professional development opportunities including:
  • Sloan-C (the Sloan Consortium)
  • WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Education Technologies) webinars
  • United States Distance Learning Association webinars/resources
  • LSU Online Lunch & Learn

LSU Online provides the following services for all LSU Online students:

• Fully online student orientation
• New student checklist
• Enrollment management/financial aid experts for online programs
• Program officer in the LSU Graduate School for online programs
• LSU Online Moodle support
• LSU Libraries (online resources)
• LSU Center for Academic Success (online resources)
• Auxiliary aids for students with disabilities
• Enrollment and retention support personnel

Office of Assessment & Evaluation

The Office of Assessment & Evaluation (OAE) provides theoretical and practical measurement support to the university administration and community, including

• Administration and management of strategic planning and assessment reports in TaskStream
• Reviews and assessments associated with the General Education Component of Undergraduate Education, including course assessment, senior-level assessment, and assessment of college-level student learning outcomes
• Coordination of University Review and Assessment Council reviews of degree program assessment
• Consultation on tests, measurements, program evaluation, unit strategic plans, and assessment of student learning outcomes
• Administration of computer-based testing for LSU courses
• Administration of course placement and advanced-standing credit assessments
• Large-scale and localized test development, administration, statistical analysis and score reporting
• Electronic test scoring, statistical analysis, and reporting of data gathered via machine-scannable forms
• Custom survey design, production, statistical analysis and reporting in both scan and computer-based modes
• Development and implementation of experimental designs employing qualitative methodologies such as focus groups and group interviews
• Administration of programs for student teaching evaluations of faculty and courses
• Coordination of large-scale national surveys and assessments related to institutional assessment
• Computer-based testing for externally-based entrance and proficiency examinations

Rural Life Museum and Windrush Gardens

The Rural Life Museum, an outdoor museum complex, is located approximately five miles from campus on the university’s 450-acre Burden Research Plantation. Open daily, this unique outdoor museum is divided into three areas. The Barn contains hundreds of artifacts dealing with everyday rural life dating from prehistoric times to the early 20th century. The Plantation consists of a complex of buildings, commissary, overseer’s house, kitchen, slave cabins, sick house, school-house, blacksmith’s shop, sugarhouse, and grist mill, authentically furnished to reconstruct all the major activities of life on a typical 19th century sugarcane plantation. Louisiana Folk Architecture is exemplified in seven buildings, a country church, a pioneer’s cabin and corn crib, potato house, shotgun house, Acadian house, and a dogtrot house, whose divergent construction traits illustrate the various cultures of Louisiana settlers.

Adjacent to the museum are the Windrush Gardens, designed and planted by the late Steele Burden. This five acre expanse of semiformal gardens with winding paths and open areas is reminiscent of 19th century Louisiana gardens. The museum and gardens are open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is charged.

LSU Press

Founded in 1935, LSU Press quickly established itself as one of the nation’s outstanding scholarly presses and continues to garner national and international accolades, including four Pulitzer Prizes. For over 75 years, LSU Press has published significant works of scholarship and preserved Louisiana’s history and culture. Over half of the books we have published remain in print around the world. LSU Press is a nonprofit book publisher dedicated to the publication of scholarly, general interest, and regional books. An integral part of LSU, the Press shares the university’s goal of the dissemination of knowledge and culture. LSU Press is one of the oldest and largest university presses in the South and among the outstanding publishers of scholarly books in the country. It holds membership in the Association of American University Presses, the largest organization of scholarly publishers in the world.

LSU Press performs a service of inestimable value to the scholarly community as well as to the broader world of our state and even to society itself. Unlike a commercial publisher that focuses on making money by publishing for popular audiences, LSU Press publishes works of scholarly, intellectual, or creative merit. The Press exists to disseminate knowledge, and as a nonprofit institution, it is mission-driven. Publications must undergo rigorous assessment by outside scholars and receive the favorable recommendations of the University Press Committee, a group of distinguished faculty.

By attracting outstanding authors and publishing outstanding books, the Press contributes to LSU’s academic prominence through scholarly inquiry and ensures LSU’s significant contribution to the world of scholarly endeavor. Additionally, as the only regularly publishing university press in Louisiana, we take seriously our mission to promote the achievements of our state and region and educate readers about its history.

Our books are published to rigorous standards, including approval by the Faculty Senate University Press Committee, which is composed of eight faculty members.

The Southern Review

The Southern Review is a quarterly literary journal devoted to publishing the best contemporary poetry, fiction, and essays, including creative nonfiction and in-depth book reviews. The journal also publishes translations and an eight-page art portfolio. Recent contributors include such literary lights as Albert Goldbarth, Mary Oliver, Claudia Emerson, Billy Collins, Francine Prose, Sven Birkerts, Melanie Rae Thon, Mark Richard, and Ron Rash. Work from its pages is regularly anthologized in the Best American series, the Pushcart Prize series, and the O. Henry Prize series.

Founded in 1935 by Cleanth Brooks, Robert Penn Warren, Albert Erskine, and Charles Pipkin and now in its second series, The Southern Review has long made literary history. Among writers published since the journal’s beginning are T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Eudora Welty, John Berryman, Federico Garcia Lorca, Paul Valéry, Wallace Stevens, Randall Jarrell, Ford Madox Ford, Katherine Anne Porter, Aldous Huxley, W.S. Merwin, Pablo Neruda, Mavis Gallant, Theodore Roethke, Joyce Carol Oates, N. Scott Momaday, Maxine Kumin, and Toni Morrison, and we continue to feature the best writers of our time.

Subscriptions are $40 a year for individuals and $75 a year for institutions. Special rates are available for LSU students and employees.

Cox Communication Academic Center for Student-Athletes

The Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes (CCACSA) is comprised of an academic affairs team, a student affairs team, and an information technology team. Collectively, the purpose is to provide an all-inclusive student-centered support structure for all student-athletes from matriculation through graduation and life beyond. In an effort to ensure the needs of student-athletes and remain amongst the premier support centers, CCACSA constantly researches best practices, implements new programming, and provides personal development sessions that include but are not limited to media training, health and wellness, and financial responsibility for student-athletes.

CCACSA’s commitment to the total development of student-athletes primarily includes four areas: academic development, personal development, service, and career development.

Information Technology Services

High Performance Computing

High Performance Computing (HPC) at LSU, or HPC@LSU, is a joint partnership between LSU’s Center for Computation & Technology (CCT) and LSU’s Information Technology Services (ITS). HPC promotes scientific computing and technology across all disciplines, enabling education, research and discovery through the use of emerging and advanced technologies. HPC@LSU provides the infrastructure and support necessary to facilitate research efforts, utilizing cutting-edge technology to push the limits of scientific discovery.

LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network

LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network is a partnership with academic libraries, state and private libraries, museums, and archives. With a centralized support staff, commonly referred to as “LOUIS” and located on the LSU Campus, LOUIS combines the collective resources of all members to produce a dynamic library consortium. It provides information technology solutions to consortium members in a cloud computing environment: an integrated library system (ILS), a digital library, interlibrary loan, electronic scholarly resources, consulting, authentication, training, communication, and operational support. Established in 1992, by academic library deans and directors, LOUIS has 49 members and is funded by the Louisiana Academic Libraries Information Network Consortium (LALINC) members and the Board of Regents. LOUIS is growing; adding new members each year. LALINC members elect an Executive Board to oversee the initiatives of the consortium.

University Networking and Infrastructure

LSU University Networking and Infrastructure is responsible for the campus voice and data networks, messaging, back office server support, infrastructure, and the Network Operations Center (NOC) and Data Center.

Network facilities include 2,100 wireless access points, extensive fiber and copper infrastructures that support more than 30,000 network nodes, 12,000 telephone ports and a core data network capable of transmitting up to 30 Gigabits per second. LSU is a member of Internet2, SURAgrid, and the Louisiana Optical Networking Initiative and has been designated a vBNS Authorized Institution by the National Science Foundation.

Back office server operations provide enterprise level support for Microsoft Windows server platforms including SQL servers, IIS, Exchange and Active Directory in support of campus wide applications.

The Network Operations Center (NOC) provides uninterrupted operational, production control and monitoring services 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. The NOC monitors mainframe services and applications, campus network equipment and services, network traffic, network security systems as well as all external connections to the LSU network.

University Information Systems

University Information Systems (UIS) is responsible for the development and maintenance of comprehensive management information systems for the university. UIS has developed and installed more than 50 major applications, including registration, degree audit, admissions, payroll, general ledger, and financial aid.

The division is also responsible for myLSU, the Web-based portal, available to all students, faculty, and staff. Each individual’s portal is unique and is customized to reflect the individual’s relationship to the university. Further, each myLSU portal dynamically adapts in real-time when this relationship changes.

The division includes System Programming; IS Architectures; HR/Financial Applications; Distributed Systems & Technical Administration; Student and Research Applications; and Portals of Business Intelligence.

User Support and Student IT Enablement

User Support and Student IT Enablement (USS) serves as the primary campus interface for information technology services at LSU. Located in the Frey Computing Services Building, the LSU Student Union, and in the Middleton Information Commons, the Help Desk, Print Desk, Adaptive Technology Services, and the Faculty Technology Center provide both walk-up and telephone technical assistance to faculty, staff, and students. IT training and education opportunities are offered on a variety of introductory and advanced topics, in addition to customized training upon request. The GROK Knowledge Base (grok.lsu.edu) serves as an online repository of the latest campus technical information, as well as an FAQ of common computing questions and answers. TigerWare (tigerware.lsu.edu) is LSU’s online software warehouse, where faculty, staff, and students can download both freeware and institutionally licensed software. USS also maintains and supports the STF funded computing labs, multi-media, and distance education classrooms located throughout campus, where faculty and students have access to both Windows and Macintosh computers and instructor stations loaded with the latest general use and discipline-specific software programs. USS also provides technical assistance to departments via its Departmental Services and topic-based IT forums each semester. Digital Imaging and Video Services assist with photographic needs, desktop conferencing, and lecture/course capture.

College of Agriculture

Louisiana State Arthropod Museum

The Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM), located in the Life Sciences Building, is a part of the Department of Entomology and a component collection of the Louisiana Museum of Natural History. The LSAM is the largest repository of insects and related arthropods in Louisiana. It houses approximately 1.2 million specimens, including 1 million pinned specimens, 100,000 fluid-preserved samples, and 30,000 microscope slides. One of the main strengths of the collection is a nationally significant beetle collection. In addition to preserving examples of the non-marine arthropod fauna of Louisiana, the LSAM’s holdings include substantial numbers of specimens from elsewhere in the southern United States, Central and South America, and the Caribbean region.

The LSAM serves the research needs of Louisiana’s scientific community by conserving voucher specimens generated by projects in agricultural entomology, biodiversity, and conservation biology. It serves the needs of the public by providing identifications of insects and other non-marine arthropods and by providing information about their habits and life histories. Specimen loans are made to qualified researchers throughout the world. The LSAM is not open to the general public and no exhibits are maintained, but requests for identifications and related information are welcome. A diagnostic fee is charged for identification services.

LSU Textile & Costume Museum

The Textile & Costume Museum offers changing exhibitions of regional, national, and international interest. Museum hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., weekdays. The scope of the museum’s more than 12,000-piece collection is global. Holdings include prehistoric and ethnic textiles and costume as well as contemporary high fashions and high-tech textiles. Types of items include apparel, accessories, household textiles, piece goods, books, patterns, and a variety of items related to textile and apparel production, use, and care. As part of the School of Human Ecology, the museum promotes conservation, research, teaching, and public service. Research includes studies of the technical, aesthetic, historic, and sociocultural significance of textiles and apparel. It is a component collection of the Louisiana Museum of Natural History at LSU.

The organization, Friends of the Textile & Costume Museum, supports the goals and functions of the museum by providing funds for purchases, exhibitions, workshops, and other activities throughout the year.

College of Art & Design

Coastal Sustainability Studio

The goal of the Coastal Sustainability Studio is to envision and design sustainable systems that reduce vulnerability associated with increased storm strength, land subsidence, habitat degradation, and global environmental change. The environmental and societal issues in coastal Louisiana mirror similar concerns in major river delta regions worldwide. At the same time, the specific problems facing the Mississippi River Delta are unique. To address these challenges, the CSS was conceived as a laboratory to develop new strategies that reduce risk to social, economic, and natural resources. The results of this design experimentation provide a sound basis for major policy decisions that focus on adaptation through more sustainable regional land-use planning, protection, and education.

Computer-Aided Design & Geographic Information Systems Research Laboratory

The Computer-Aided Design & Geographic Information Systems Research Laboratory (CADGIS) is dedicated to education, service, and research in computer-aided design, geographic information systems, remote sensing, image processing, and other computer applications in the areas of art, architecture, disaster sciences, geography, anthropology, interior design, and landscape architecture. This multidisciplinary laboratory, operated jointly by the College of Art & Design and the Department of Geography & Anthropology, provides specialized support to academic and research units at LSU, to state and federal agencies, and to nonprofit organizations.

CADGIS has two instructional laboratories, one research laboratory, and seminar rooms with IP-based video conferencing capabilities. A wide range of software is available, as well as plotting and printing services.

Glassell Gallery

The LSU School of Art’s Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery is an ultra-contemporary venue located on the ground floor of the architecturally-distinguished Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown Baton Rouge. The Glassell Gallery mounts exhibits of the highest caliber by contemporary artists from around the world and displays the professional work of our faculty as well as thesis exhibitions by graduate students in the School of Art. The gallery affords a dynamic setting for connections with the local and regional community. The gallery is open Tuesday-Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM and on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 PM. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, call (225) 389-7180.

Office of Community Design & Development

The Office of Community Design and Development (OCDD) is an interdisciplinary community outreach center in the School of Architecture that connects students with Louisiana’s communities to improve the quality of the built environment and the lives of citizens across the state and beyond. Funded through grants and sponsored research, OCDD’s practice-centered pedagogy strengthens the efficacy of student learning through a comprehensive approach to professional education, undergraduate research, civic engagement, and service learning.

Research Office for Novice Design Education

The mission of the Research Office for Novice Design Education is to preserve, generate, and disseminate knowledge of theories and practices pertaining to novice design education. Its goal is to become a central resource for educators and scholars interested in novice design education.

The research office addresses salient questions regarding how one has taught, teaches, or should teach design to learners who are new to the field of study. Such questions inquire into issues such as the particular educational challenges faced by novice learners and educators and the impact of those challenges on the relationship of novice design education to the broader design disciples, the content and curricular structure of novice education, and the types of assignments and projects most suited for that content and structure. At their best, these questions, and the answers to them, implicitly or explicitly state a position on the status of knowledge, the means by which one transfers, acquires or constructs knowledge, and how one has used, uses or should use knowledge in the world.

To achieve its mission and goal, the research office is engaged in three ongoing initiatives.

1. Collect Existing Scholarship: The research office collects papers, books, or bibliographic reference material on novice design education. The purpose of this initiative is to develop a comprehensive reference archive for research on novice design education.
2. Scholarship: The research office produces and facilitates scholarship through the work of its directors and scholars who use its library.
3. Distribute Scholarship: The research office disseminates scholarship through this website, other publications, and open access to the scholarship it collects.

The research office is honored to house the past proceedings of the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student in searchable PDF format. Over the past 25 years, the participants of NCBDS have produced a remarkable body of knowledge on beginning design education. With this database, the NCBDS and the research office is pleased to make this rich body of knowledge available to scholars.

Research projects currently include investigations into: (1) the relationship between cognition and drawing, (2) film media as an alternative mode of representation in novice design education, (3) teaching critical reasoning in professionally oriented undergraduate design courses, and (4) the application of Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the everyday to novice design education.

Media and Site Technologies Lab

The Media and Site Technologies Lab is an effort initiated by the School of Landscape Architecture focusing on research in visualization, simulation, sensing, and site technologies. The lab provides facilities that include workspace for prototyping, high end visualization and video editing components, and display and projection technologies.

The lab provides a research resource for faculty and graduate students with collaborative projects and funding from a variety of private and governmental organizations. Current projects are focused on site technologies, responsive landscapes, visualization, and simulation. Project sponsors have included the McKnight Foundation, Louisiana Department of Homeland Security, CSS, and various foundations.

Urban Landscape Lab

The Urban Landscape Lab (ULL) is a research and service-learning center at the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture at LSU. The center’s mission is to design and build projects in urban areas that promote the development of innovative, healthy and environmentally sustainable landscapes and to provide hands-on learning opportunities for LSU students. The current focus within the lab is expanding the New Orleans Schoolyard Project.

New Orleans Schoolyard Project

The New Orleans Schoolyard Project is a collaborative effort to design and build healthy, educational, and sustainable schoolyards for public schools in New Orleans. Well-designed school environments promote learning, increase activity levels, and improve the overall health and well-being of students. This project focuses on developing innovative design solutions that make children more active in order to combat childhood obesity, develop environmentally sustainable campuses, and engage the school children in design exercises. The Prevention Research Center at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine has collaborated with the ULL to research the impact of schoolyard design on children’s health and activity levels. The New Orleans Schoolyard Project has worked with the Priestly School for Architecture and Construction and the Martin Luther King, Jr. School for Science and Technology and is currently partnering with KIPP New Orleans Schools.

Viet Village Urban Farm Project

The Viet Village Urban Farm project is located in east New Orleans, a Vietnamese-American community with long ties to this area of New Orleans. Over 90 percent of the pre-Katrina population has returned to this area. The Viet Village Urban Farm is an urban farming project on 21 acres of land located at the center of the community. The farm will support both household farming and producing crops for local consumption as well as commercial crops for distribution to local New Orleans restaurants. Educational and recreational activities are also incorporated into the design to create a project that will be the new center of this urban community. This project is being developed in collaboration with the City Center at Tulane University.

E. J. Ourso College of Business

Highway Safety Research Group

The Highway Safety Research Group (HSRG) is responsible for collecting, maintaining, storing, and analyzing crash data captured from law enforcement agencies throughout the state of Louisiana. The HSRG has two primary functions: research and development. On the research front, the HSRG analyzes crash data obtained from a variety of sources to produce numerous published reports each year, including the annual “Louisiana Traffic Records Data Report.” In terms of development, the HSRG specializes in developing advanced software and innovative support for law enforcement agencies around the state. The HSRG’s LACRASH software system, designed to capture electronic crash reporting information in an accurate and timely manner, is currently in use by more than 170 Louisiana law enforcement agencies. Ongoing development projects include integrating digital dashboards and geographical information systems (GIS) into various platforms to enhance data interpretations. These projects are made possible through a grant provided by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

Louisiana Business & Technology Center

The Louisiana Business & Technology Center (LBTC) was created in 1988 as a joint venture of the university, the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, and the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority. LBTC is now part of the E. J. Ourso College of Business. Its purpose is to enhance economic development in the state through a job creation network. A community resource, LBTC assists new and small businesses by offering:

• management and marketing expertise;
• technology and technical assistance; and
• incubator space and business services.

The intent is to develop and nurture small business growth as a means of diversifying the economy.

LBTC provides space for new business start-ups in the incubator at LSU Innovation Park. Companies located in the LBTC can concentrate on production and marketing, which affect success and profit. Day-to-day administrative details and overhead problems are left to the facility manager. The LBTC was named the 2005 National Business Incubator of the Year by the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), the 2009 U.S. Department of Commerce–Excellence in Economic Development and the 2009 NBIA–Most Innovative Program.

The LBTC was designated as both an International Soft Landing Incubator by the NBIA and a Clean Energy Incubator by the US Clean Energy Alliance.

LSU Small Business Development Center • A partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, this center serves small and new businesses in three areas: education, research, and outreach. Job creation and economic development are the main goals of the center.

Students work with entrepreneurs and small business clients to produce business plans, market studies, software programs, and accounting systems. The program provides students with real world experience and practical application of acquired knowledge.

Technology Transfer • The LBTC operates the Louisiana Technology Transfer Office at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, under a contract from the Louisiana Department of Economic Development. The office is a technology clearinghouse for Louisiana business and industry. Its purpose is to foster technology commercialization and economic development.

Goals of the Technology Transfer Office are:

• to broker technical requirements of Louisiana businesses with the federal agencies;
• to establish a process for matching Louisiana businesses with Small Business Innovation Research grant requests and for assisting businesses in applying for grants;
• to foster local and state economic development by accessing the federal labs for problem solving, innovation, and technology transfer;
• to represent LSU in the Federal Laboratory Consortium and at other national and international forums; and
• to provide access for state agencies, local government, and Louisiana businesses to conduct research and develop technologies.

LBTC Mobile Classroom and Rural Entrepreneurship Program • The LBTC has a 30-seat mobile classroom that it deploys to rural Louisiana and the hurricane impacted areas of the state to offer training in entrepreneurship, business planning, marketing and disaster recovery. This program is funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce–EDA, USDA–Rural Development with assistance from the LED, LPFA, LSU Ag Center, Louisiana Municipal Association, and Capital One. The unit visits 30 locations annually offering workshops and one-on-one counseling.

Access LSU • The LBTC has established a program to be the gatekeeper for businesses needing access to LSU’s wealth of talent, expertise, equipment, and technology. Business owners call the LBTC with their problems and needs and the LBTC researches the LSU System to find and connect the proper expert with the business.

Disaster Recovery • The LBTC was established as a Small Business Disaster Recovery Center immediately after the hurricanes of 2005. The LBTC has partnered with Louisiana Economic Development and others including Shell and ExxonMobil to provide assistance to businesses and entrepreneurs in the hurricane parishes from Cameron to Calcasieu to St. Bernard and Plaquemines. The program provides one-on-one counseling as well as workshops on procurement, business recovery, and business development.

Student Incubator • The LBTC Student Incubator is a 1,200 square foot incubator facility designed for student entrepreneurs interested in starting businesses prior to graduation in an attempt to “create their own job” after graduation. The Student Incubator provides space, equipment, furniture, business counseling, mentoring and access to capital to student entrepreneurs. The LBTC staff and Advisory Board provide business support and training programs at no cost to students.

The LSU Innovation Park • LSU has developed a more than 200 acre, premier research park four miles south of the campus on Highway 30 in Baton Rouge. The designated qualified research park offers tax incentives and credits to eligible businesses operating in the park. Companies located in the LSU Innovation Park must meet stringent requirements and have a strong relationship with the university in areas of expertise compatible with LSU’s research mission. This park provides faculty and students with a broader avenue for intellectual enrichment and technological discovery by partnering with scientific investigators from federal labs and industry. By helping researchers bring new technologies to market, the LSU Innovation Park creates high quality jobs, benefits the community, and enhances the image of LSU and Louisiana.

Current partners at the LSU Innovation Park include the Louisiana Army National Guard and Disaster Response Center, Electronic Arts/EA Sports Video Game’s North American Testing Center, the National Center for Biomedical Research & Training, the LSU Center for BioModular Multi-Scale Systems, the Louisiana Business Emergency Operations Center, the Louisiana Technology Transfer Office, the Manufacturing Extension Program of Louisiana, and the Louisiana Business & Technology Center.

Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute

The Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute’s mission is to inspire, innovate, integrate, and implement new ways of thinking, education, and outreach to positively impact students, the regional economy, the state of Louisiana, and the nation. This multi-disciplinary, university-wide institute promotes innovative approaches to identifying needs and solving problems through an entrepreneurial view of opportunity recognition and realization.

The institute offers programs and activities such as educational seminars and workshops in an executive education format; university course work; business planning, marketing and management consultation; and venture funding assistance, to give entrepreneurs effective management tools and problem-solving skills with the primary goal of economic development and job creation in Louisiana. Available university academic course work areas include: entrepreneurship, small business management, innovation and creativity, doing business in China, consulting field projects, family business management, franchising management, and independent study topics as approved.

Focus Programs

• Executive & Entrepreneurial Education - a certificate course that instills a new vitality and effectiveness by hosting guest speakers and lecture for mid-career level executives seeking professional development.
• SEI has partnered with several universities to deliver the Entrepreneurial Boot Camp for Veterans with Disabilities assisting our service-disabled heroes find a career after their military service is completed.

A generous donation by Emmet and Toni Stephenson will permit The Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute, the Louisiana Business & Technology Center, the Small Business Development Center, the LSU System Emerging Technology Center, and other colleges within LSU to create a more responsive environment to assist in economic development and entrepreneurship related endeavors.

Public Administration Institute

The Public Administration Institute (PAI) offers the Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree to enhance career opportunities for those planning to enter public service; provide help for those currently employed in public service who want to acquire or to extend their professional knowledge; offer service to those interested in the not-for-profit sector of the economy; and offer training for those who are in the private sector or who intend to work in the private sector who will deal with the public sector. Students from a social science, liberal arts, business, or physical science background are encouraged to apply.

The curriculum consists of course work in the disciplines of finance, economics, political science, management, and statistics. The course work focuses on analytical, quantitative, and management skills needed by today’s successful public or private manager. Core courses are taught by faculty in the PAI and supporting departments throughout the university. Classes are scheduled to accommodate career professionals, as well as full-time students. Challenging internships in government and non-profit agencies are available to qualified students.

Louisiana Real Estate Research Institute

The Louisiana Real Estate Research Institute was established in 1985 with funding from the E.J. Ourso College of Business and the Louisiana Real Estate Commission. Its purpose is to encourage, support, and conduct applied and basic research in real estate, with particular focus on real estate and related economic activity in Louisiana. The institute has sponsored nearly 200 research projects, ranging from the analysis of nonparametric location theory to investigation of the effect on housing markets of below-market financing bond issues. An integral part of the institute’s effort is to fund research grants for faculty and graduate students, as well as to provide scholarship support for students.

The institute’s work is closely supported by the Louisiana Real Estate Commission Endowed Chair of Real Estate, the Latter & Blum Professorship of Business Administration, and the C. J. Brown Professorship of Real Estate. Continued funding for the institute has been provided by the Louisiana Real Estate Commission, the E.J. Ourso College of Business, the Commercial Investment Division of the Baton Rouge Board of Realtors, and various local and state private corporations.

School of the Coast and Environment

Earth Scan Lab

The Earth Scan Laboratory is a satellite receiving station and image processing facility for environmental data from six unique earth observing sensor systems. The laboratory specializes in real-time access to satellite imagery and measurements of the atmosphere, oceans, and coastal areas within the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, W. Atlantic, and E. Tropical Pacific Ocean. Satellite measurements are obtained directly from satellite transmissions many times each day. The mission of the laboratory is to support education, research, and state emergency response. During hurricane season, the laboratory supplies hurricane images every few minutes to the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Response. ESL’s comprehensive web page, www.esl.lsu.edu, provides daily imagery and animations of oceanic and atmospheric circulations both in real-time and as historic archives.

WAVCIS

The objective of WAVCIS (wave-current information system) is to provide wave information (sea state) including wave height, period, direction of propagation, water level, surge, near surface current speed and direction and meteorological conditions on a real time basis around the entire Louisiana coast.

WAVCIS involves offshore deployment of instrumentation at nine sites in the northern Gulf of Mexico (eight in Louisiana waters) in order to provide real time information on a frequent basis (3 hours or less) describing sea state, surface current and meteorological conditions. The instrumentation provides information from deep to shallow water off the Louisiana coast in addition to the major bays.

Data from each station is transmitted by a solar powered cellular link to a base station at Louisiana State University where it undergoes quality control, post-processing and archiving in an online database. The information is then made available on the Web and is accessible to computers with an Internet connection and web browser. Various data displays are available for the real time information as well as a specified time history for archived data.

College of Engineering

Center for Gas Turbine Innovations & Energy Research

The mission of the Center for Gas Turbine Innovations & Energy Research (TIER) is to bring university researchers, turbine engine companies, utilities, and industries together to pursue collaborative interdisciplinary research in the area of gas turbines and distributed energy, and to educate and prepare students for opportunities in gas turbine engine companies, utilities, and cogeneration facilities.

The center is staffed with a team of researchers primarily from the College of Engineering, with ongoing collaboration with the College of Humanities & Social Sciences, the College of Science, and the Center for Advanced Microstructures & Devices. The various researchers have established strong programs in gas turbines and distributed energy or related areas.

Center for Rotating Machinery

The Center for Rotating Machinery (CeROM), established in 2000, was created by an interdisciplinary research group led by faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in close collaboration with business and industry leaders. By providing cutting-edge technological innovations to solve complex problems in engineering systems, the center serves as an intellectual foundation to the industry with focus on long-range development.

The center fosters the development of the next generation of mechanical components, materials synthesis, and fabrication techniques, and serves the needs of the large industrial base in Louisiana and elsewhere in the nation. Current collaborations exist between researchers in the center and a number of industries as well as the Gulf South Rotating Machinery Symposium (GSRMS) Conference steering committee. Projects of note include research in the areas of tribology, materials synthesis, characterization, modeling, mechanical systems analysis, nondestructive testing, fatigue testing and analysis, and advanced sensing technology. The center is committed to maintaining a strong partnership with industry through stimulating technological innovation; facilitating commercialization of new research and development; serving as a magnet for attracting new industries to Louisiana; hosting workshops, symposia, and advanced specialty courses for training professional engineers; and providing graduate students with real-world, relevant experience to produce a high quality workforce for Louisiana and beyond.

Hazardous Substance Research Center

The Hazardous Substance Research Center/South and Southwest (HSRC) is a five-institution consortium consisting of LSU, as the lead institution, Georgia Institute of Technology, Texas A&M, Rice University, and the University of Texas. The consortium conducts research, outreach, and technology transfer activities on critical hazardous substance problems. These investigations focus on the following three categories:

• engineering management of contaminated sediments;
• hazardous substances problems of special interest to communities within EPA Regions 4 and 6; and
• hazardous waste site remediation and management.

Louisiana Transportation Research Center

The Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC) is a cooperative research, education, and technology transfer center jointly administered by LSU and the Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development. The center was established in 1986 by the Louisiana Legislature with the goal of improving the state’s transportation system through basic and applied research, education, and technology transfer. The primary focus of the center is development of nationally recognized research and educational programs in transportation systems resulting in the implementation of more efficient design, planning, maintenance, operation, and construction practices as well as improved safety. LTRC also offers courses, seminars, and training sessions designed to enhance the professional capabilities of DOTD engineers and all transportation professionals. These courses are offered through LTRC’s Transportation Training and Education Center (TTEC) located adjacent to the LTRC building. TTEC has state-of-the-art classrooms and lecture facilities with advanced distance-learning capabilities. LTRC also publishes reports, brochures, and training materials. These publications are available to students in appropriate disciplines.

The Louisiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP), a division of LTRC, is part of a national network dispersing the latest in transportation practices to local governing bodies by means of publications, seminars, workshops, and technical assistance.

Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute

The Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute funds research concerned with water resources problems and the enhancement of Louisiana’s water resources, while simultaneously training engineers and scientists to address future problems. Located on the LSU campus, research may be conducted by faculty from universities and colleges statewide. Research topics range from resource management (including flooding and water supply) to water quality (including wastewater treatment and aquifer restoration).

Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation & Transportation Resiliency

The Gulf Coast Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency was established as a federal University Transportation Center (UTC) in 2008 under the support of the United States Department of Transportation. The center seeks to create and disseminate new knowledge to address a multitude of issues that impact transportation processes under emergency conditions. These are developed through the research, teaching, and outreach mission of the center and include topics such as evacuation for natural and man-made hazards and other types of major events as well as the need to develop and maintain the ability of transportation systems to economically, efficiently, and safely respond to the changing conditions and demands that may be placed upon them. Work within these areas has recently included the development of modeling and analysis techniques; innovative design and control strategies; and travel demand estimation and planning methods that can be used to predict and improve travel under periods of immediate and overwhelming demand. In addition to detailed analysis of emergency transportation processes, the center also provides support for the broader study of transportation resiliency. This has included research on key components of redundant transportation systems, analysis of congestion in relation to resiliency, and the impact of climate change.

Center for Geoinformatics

The Center for Geoinformatics (C4G) operates and maintains C4Gnet, the 3-D positioning infrastructure that defines the National Spatial Reference System in Louisiana. The center is a national force in expanding and strengthening the university, commercial, and public-sector geospatial communities within the state of Louisiana and the U.S. It provides the advanced geospatial information applications, products, training, and commercialization expertise that are required to support economic development and environmental stewardship.

College of Humanities & Social Sciences

Center for French & Francophone Studies

The Center for French & Francophone Studies develops and encourages interdisciplinary research in French and Francophone literatures, cultures, and language. It provides facilities and opportunities for LSU and visiting faculty as well as for student researchers. The center is involved with all French and Francophone activities at the university and with state and international organizations. Open to faculty and students, a library of French and Francophone literature and reference materials is also housed in the center, as is a video library containing many francophone films.

Southern Regional Climate Center

The Southern Regional Climate Center (SRCC), one of six regional climate centers serving climate information needs of the U.S., provides climate information services for Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Housed in the Department of Geography & Anthropology, the SRCC is administered by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), an agency of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The SRCC receives a wide array of National Weather Service (NWS) data via the Internet and through an on-site NOAA port satellite receiver. We also receive observed and processed data and information from non-federal sources. These data are processed at the SRCC and merged with historical climatic archives to provide a comprehensive source of climate information. Providing more than an archive service, these operational data products enable the SRCC staff to monitor and assess the current state of the regional climate, provide value-added climatic information to decision-makers, promote regional economic development, provide information to promote environmental management and stewardship, and supply researchers with needed climate information to assist domain-specific research.

The SRCC works within the national RCC program to provide support for the U.S. National Climate Assessment, a periodic snapshot of the U.S. climate as it relates to climate change; provides weekly regional assessments of U.S. drought conditions for the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS); and provides monthly reports to NCDC on climate extremes across the SRCC region. More recently, the SRCC has begun plans to assume a larger regional scale that will include the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This expansion allows the SRCC to monitor a region that includes all Gulf of Mexico bordering states. We are expanding our reach into the coastal margins of the Gulf of Mexico in preparation for this responsibility.

Faculty, staff, and graduate students utilize SRCC climatic data and computing resources to perform applied and basic research on a variety of climate-related topics that include rainfall frequency analysis, regional flooding, drought, extreme weather and climate events, climatic impacts on agriculture, tropical storms and storm surge, and numerous issues related to climatic change and variability. SRCC is active participants in the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program, a joint venture between LSU and the University of Oklahoma (OU), and have partnered with OU, Oklahoma State University, Texas Tech University, the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations of Oklahoma, and the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory to form the South Central Climate Science Center, a five-year project sponsored by the Department of the Interior. This research center focuses on ecological studies impacted by climate extremes and global climate change.

Louisiana Office of State Climatology

The Louisiana Office of State Climatology (LOSC) is recognized by the American Association of State Climatologists as the official climate office for the state, housing the Louisiana State Climatologist. It has been providing climate data services to the state’s public, private, industrial, and governmental sectors since the late 1970s. The LOSC is charged with maintaining historical climate data for the state, and then making these data available to the public. The State Climatologist monitors current weather impacts and trends for Louisiana, and is very active with local and regional media. The LOSC is supported in this activity by the Southern Regional Climate Center (SRCC) and the National Climate Data Center. Located within the Department of Geography & Anthropology, the LOSC is closely linked to the department’s SRCC and shares the SRCC’s data and computer resources.

Eric Voegelin Institute for American Renaissance Studies

The Eric Voegelin Institute for American Renaissance Studies, a humanities-social science research institute with no instructional program, was created as a unit within the College of Humanities & Social Sciences in 1987. The institute is named for perhaps the greatest scholar-teacher in the history of the university (1942-1958) and one of the original Boyd Professors, Eric Voegelin, of the Department of Government (renamed the Department of Political Science in the 1960s). The institute is devoted to revitalizing the teaching and understanding of the great books of Western civilization in comparison with other civilizational traditions, especially along lines embodied in Voegelin’s own massive scholarship.

Largely supported by private contributions and other external funding, the institute is principally involved in two activities: conferences conducted both in the U.S. and abroad in the fields of constitutionalism, individual liberty, and political philosophy; and publications (books and monographs) in these same interest areas. It is the principal editorial and financial support unit for the large edition titled The Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, University of Missouri Press, 34 vols., completed in 2009.

Manship School of Mass Communication

Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs

The Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs, launched in 2000, is the focus of numerous projects and activities aimed at elevating the quality of civic discourse. The center is housed in the Manship School of Mass Communication but collaborates with other academic units.

The center supports cutting-edge scholarship on all aspects of media and public affairs. Topics range over a wide variety of issues, including news coverage of government and business, the impact of technology on foreign news coverage, the role of advocacy groups in reaching the electorate, public opinion analysis, and constituent building by public and private entities.

The center has a number of venues for making its research public and useful. It cooperates with LSU Press to publish an ongoing series of books. It also supports symposia, conferences, and a public policy fellows program for the discussion of media and public affairs issues. The John Breaux Symposium is held annually, bringing in outstanding scholars, journalists, public officials, and business and civic leaders. Symposia focus on state and national issues of pressing contemporary importance. Symposia are often published as reports and distributed nationally. The center manages the Manship School Research Facility which houses the Public Policy Research Lab and the Media Effects Lab.

No degree is offered, but the center is tied to the PhD program in mass communication and public affairs, which offers fellowships to support doctoral candidates who assist faculty and the center with research. Work in the center provides valuable experience for students, thereby enhancing the quality of their education. The center also brings in visiting scholars to collaborate on projects and work with students.

The center’s public service arm directly assists media companies, industry, government, and nonprofit agencies by focusing the expertise of superior scholars on practical problems. Projects may include opinion surveys, communication plans, media training, and other special projects.

Public Policy Research Lab

The Public Policy Research Lab is dedicated to quality public policy research through state-of-the-art survey technologies. It helps advance scholarly and practical research while playing a leadership role in state and national public policy development. The lab serves other units on campus, government agencies, non-profits, business and industry. National surveys have resulted in publication in both practical and scholarly journals. The lab’s projects benefit from the multiple disciplines and intellectual assets at LSU. One of the lab’s core projects is the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs’ annual Louisiana Survey, a longitudinal study of advancements and regressions of citizen views regarding state services and contemporary issues.

The Manship School Research Facility houses the Public Policy Research Lab (PPRL) and the Media Effects Lab (MEL).

Media Effects Lab

The Media Effects Lab (MEL) is a state of the art experimental research lab equipped with 16 computer stations, two eye tracking stations and a living room area for research in a more natural environment. One of the largest, most sophisticated communication impact labs of its kind within a mass communication program in the country, MEL’s features allow researchers to measure audiences’ physical responses (i.e. heart rate, skin conductance, etc.) to media messages, gather information on conscious and unconscious attitudes towards messages, and track the usability of websites and social networking sites. Experiments and projects can track individuals’ responses to particular media content helping content creators figure out what stimulates and resonates with audiences.

College of Science

Center for Biomodular Multi-Scale Systems

The Center for BioModular Multi-Scale Systems (CBM²) is a multidisciplinary center for the development of micro/nano-scale devices with applications in medical diagnostics, forensics, drug discovery and homeland defense and is funded by grants from National Science Foundation, Louisiana Board of Regents, National Institutes of Health, and others. In addition to its primary research mission, CBM² also supports active Education/Outreach and Industrial Partnership programs.

Headquartered on LSU’s South Campus, CBM² is a collaboration of leading research universities throughout Louisiana and the nation, including LSU (including CAMD), LSU Health Science Center, Tulane Health Sciences Center, Xavier University of Louisiana, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Sloan-Kettering Research Institute.

Hearne Institute for Theoretical Physics

In 1994, LSU alumnus Horace C. Hearne, Jr., endowed two chaired professorships in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at LSU. In his will, he also left a mandate that they be used to create the Horace Hearne Jr. Institute for Theoretical Physics.

In 2001, Jorge Pullin joined the LSU faculty as one of the Hearne Chairs and in 2004, Jonathan Dowling was also hired as a Hearne Chair. Research is on quantization of gravity and quantum science and technologies, including decoherence due to quantum gravity, non-standard optics due to quantum gravity, quantum computing, quantum imaging, and quantum sensors. The institute has more than 10 associate faculty in the Departments of Physics & Astronomy, Math, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science, and is supported by the original Hearne endowment, as well as grants from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense.

Louisiana Museum of Natural History

The Louisiana Museum of Natural History, the official state museum of natural history, consists of 16 major research collections located on the LSU campus. Together, these collections hold a total of more than 2.8 million specimens, objects, and artifacts that document the rich natural history of Louisiana, the central-Gulf region, and the world. These collections are dispersed among six independently administered units on campus, and include the Vascular Plant Herbarium, the Mycological Herbarium, the Lichen Herbarium, the Log Library & Core Repository, the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum, the Center for Excellence in Palynology, the Gems & Minerals Collection, the Textile & Costume Museum, and eight collections of the Museum of Natural Science (the Collection of Amphibians & Reptiles, the Collection of Birds, the Collection of Fishes, the Collection of Genetic Resources, the Collection of Mammals, the Vertebrate Paleontology Collection, the Collection of Fossil Protists & Invertebrates, and the Ethnology-Archaeology Collection).

The collections of the Louisiana Museum of Natural History, used actively for education, research, display, and public service, represent an important historical trust for future generations of Louisiana’s citizens. Details about each collection, including educational and exhibits programs, can be obtained by contacting the curator-in-charge of the collection (see individual listings) or by visiting the museum’s website.

LSU Herbarium

Lichen & Bryophyte Herbarium

The Lichen & Bryophyte Herbarium, located in A257 Life Sciences Annex, is a permanent scientific collection of preserved material of more than 45,000 specimens of lichens–the largest collection of its kind in the Gulf South–and several thousand mosses and liverworts. It is the result of the work of Boyd Professor Emerita Shirley Tucker, Department of Biological Sciences. Geographical emphasis is on species native to Louisiana and the southeastern U.S. Other areas represented include the western and northern U.S., Canada, the American tropics, New Zealand, Europe, and Australia. The collection is particularly rich in tropical and subtropical crustose lichens.

The herbarium is primarily a research and teaching facility. Research programs are in progress on floristics of southeastern U.S. lichens and on ultrastructure of subtropical crustose lichens. On request, specimens are available for loan to other institutions.

Mycological Herbarium

The Bernard Lowy Mycological Herbarium, located in A257 Life Sciences Annex, contains the university’s permanent collection of more than 25,000 preserved specimens of nonlichenized fungi from all over the world. It was collected principally by the late Dr. Bernard Lowy, an LSU mycologist and ethnobotanist of international stature. It includes a large representative collection of Amazonian Tremellales and other Basidiomycetes, as well as an important collection of Gulf Coast wood decay fungi. The herbarium is principally a research and teaching facility, and specimens are loaned to other institutions, both domestic and foreign.

Vascular Plant Herbarium

The Vascular Plant Herbarium, located in A257 Life Sciences Annex, houses the permanent, scientific collection of preserved specimens of ferns, fern allies, gymnosperms, and flowering plants. Founded in 1869, it is the oldest herbarium in the Gulf South and presently comprises more than 180,000 specimens, including one of the best collections of Louisiana plants.

The collection includes dried, pressed specimens and material preserved in alcohol. Many historically important 19th and early 20th century specimens from the Louisiana Gulf Coast are included. New material is obtained through the collecting efforts of herbarium personnel, associated colleagues, amateurs, and through the exchange of duplicates with other herbaria. The goal of the herbarium is to be the premier collection of Louisiana and Gulf South plants, and a resource of international importance.

The herbarium is a reference and service facility, and is an essential resource for all research, teaching, and public service involving identification, classification, economic importance, and ecology of the plants and vegetation of Louisiana, the Gulf South, and the northern Neotropics. Numerous publications are based on the collections. The herbarium also supports an extensive website (www.herbarium.lsu.edu), which features browse and search functions of specimen records, specimen images, a plant image gallery, and plant fact sheets. Use of the LSU Herbarium may be arranged through Dr. Lowell Urbatsch, herbarium director, by visiting A257D Life Sciences Annex, calling 225-578-8564, or emailing leu@lsu.edu.

LSU Museum of Natural Science

The Museum of Natural Science, a subunit of the Louisiana Museum of Natural History, consists of the Division of Zoology, located in Foster Hall, and the Division of Geoscience, located in the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex. The exhibits in Foster Hall consist of nine major dioramas that depict with meticulous accuracy the flora and fauna of selected scenes from North America, including representatives of Louisiana’s animal life. Other exhibits and visual aids explain various biological and geological principles. Three new exhibits highlight research on tiger conservation, Antarctica, and Louisiana pre-history. The museum’s exhibits are free and open to the public from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday (call 578-2855 for information); closed on Saturday, Sunday, and university holidays.

The museum’s Division of Zoology contains extensive research collections, numbering more than 500,000 catalogued specimens of birds, mammals, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, and their tissue samples. This internationally known repository of zoological material provides the basis for a program of research and serves as an important aid in teaching biological subjects.

The Division of Geoscience contains the most extensive archaeological and geological research collections in Louisiana. The museum’s archaeological collections include more than one million lots from 1,800 sites in Louisiana and many other sites in the Gulf Coast and Caribbean regions. Ethnological collections include material from North and South America, Africa, Australia, Oceania, Asia, and the Arctic. The H. V. Howe Type Collection of fossil ostracoda and the H. B. Stenzel Collection of fossil oysters are among the best of their kind in the world.

The museum is a member of the Natural Science Collections Alliance.

Center for Excellence in Palynology

The Center for Excellence in Palynology (CENEX) was established in 1993 by Louisiana State University and the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists, Inc. (AASP). Its mission is to promote research and training in stratigraphic palynology. AASP initiated this collaborative effort as a result of a concern for the availability of trained palynologists in the United States. The CENEX Palynologic Processing Laboratory was established in 1994 with support from several sources including industrial support from Amoco Production Company, Chevron, Shell Oil Company, and UNOCAL. Additional specialized equipment was purchased with external funding (e.g. NSF). CENEX is now equipped with 7 BX41 Olympus microscopes for research and graduate student training. The CENEX Palynologic Library contains some 25,000 palynologic reprints, books, and reports and a pollen reference slide collection of more than 8,000 modern pollen species donated from several sources and 60,000 palynologic slides from oil wells, primarily from the Gulf of Mexico.

Palynology is the study of organic-walled microfossils (e.g., spores, pollen, fungal debris, acritarchs, dinoflagellate cysts, etc.). These entities, collectively called palynomorphs, were and are produced in prodigious quantities by a variety of terrestrial, aquatic, and marine organisms. Their resistant organic walls assure that they are preserved in sediments and rocks, some dating back 3.5 billion years. Stratigraphic palynology developed because of the need of the oil and coal industries to date and correlate subsurface sedimentary deposits. Palynomorphs are also particularly useful for reconstruction of past environmental conditions and are commonly used today in climate change studies or in studies focusing on the co-evolution of Earth and life since the Precambrian.

The center currently has three PhD students focusing on palynological research in Antarctica, Papua New Guinea, and Canada; and five master’s students focusing on palynological research in Colombia, the Black Sea, the Antarctic Peninsula, and the Gulf of Mexico. These students are supported by grants from NSF (CAREER and OPP); by the oil and gas industry (HESS, MARATHON, BP, and ECOPETROL); and by teaching assistantships from the LSU Department of Geology & Geophysics and the LSU Museum of Natural Science.

Other Research Partnerships

LSU Agricultural Center

As the research arm of the LSU Agricultural Center, the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station is a major partner in graduate education and research. Research in the major soil, climate, and agricultural production areas is conducted in campus departments and in research stations located throughout the state. Many Agricultural Experiment Station faculty hold joint teaching and research appointments in the College of Agriculture, College of Engineering, and the School of Veterinary Medicine. In addition, the Experiment Station provides a large number of graduate assistantships, and laboratories, equipment, and facilities of the station are made available to graduate students.

Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species

The Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species (ACRES), opened in 1996, is an ambitious and innovative initiative in species conservation. Located in New Orleans, ACRES includes a 36,000 square-foot facility designed to house scientists whose research programs include studies in reproductive physiology, endocrinology, genetics, embryo transfer, and the expansion of a “frozen zoo” to assure the future of endangered species through the banking of genetic materials.

The alliances between LSU and ACRES (joint programming, data pooling, collaborative research, and cooperative funding) enables interdisciplinary field-and-lab teams to conduct far-reaching research programs which range in scope from regional to international.

The knowledge gained through collaborative research between LSU and ACRES will help scientists and conservationists cope with threats to the most seriously endangered species by developing new reproductive technologies and reintroduction techniques necessary to ensure their long-term survival.

Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium

Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) was formed in 1979 “with the primary function of conducting research and promoting education in the marine sciences and marine technology, particularly where related to coastal resources and the impact of energy related industries upon these coastal resources.” LUMCON provides coastal laboratory facilities to Louisiana universities and conducts research and educational programs in the marine sciences.

LUMCON’s primary facilities are located at the DeFelice Marine Center in Cocodrie, approximately 85 miles southwest of New Orleans. This location, situated within the estuarine wetland complex of the Mississippi River delta plain between the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers, provides ready access to the most productive estuaries in the U.S., to a variety of coastal environments, and to the open Gulf of Mexico.

LUMCON is governed by a six-member Executive Board comprised of chief executive officers of LSU, Nicholls State University, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. This board reports to the Louisiana Board of Regents. For more information about LUMCON visit their website at www.lumcon.edu.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities

Undergraduate and graduate students, postgraduates, and faculty enjoy access to a multitude of opportunities for study and research through Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) and the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE). Students can participate in programs covering a wide variety of science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines. Most appointments range in length from one month to four years and include a stipend or salary, as well as funding for travel related to research or professional meetings. Some programs pay for tuition and fees. Many of these programs are especially designed to increase the numbers of underrepresented minority students pursuing degrees in science- and engineering-related disciplines. A comprehensive listing of these programs and other opportunities, their disciplines, and details on locations and benefits can be found in the ORISE Catalog of Education and Training Programs, which is available at http://www.orau.gov/orise/educ.htm.

Through ORAU’s University Partnerships Office, opportunities for partnerships and alliances among ORAU’s members, private industry, and major federal facilities are developed. Activities include faculty development programs, such as the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards, consortium research funding initiatives, faculty research and support programs as well as services to chief research officers.

Since 1946, students and faculty of LSU have benefited from its membership in Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). ORAU is a consortium of 100 colleges and universities and a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ORAU works with its member institutions to help their students and faculty gain access to federal research facilities throughout the country; to keep its members informed about opportunities for fellowship, scholarship, and research appointments; and to organize research alliances among its members.

Organization for Tropical Studies

The Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) is a nonprofit, scientific, academic consortium whose mission is to provide leadership in tropical biology by promoting education, research, and the wise use of natural resources in the tropics. Founded in 1963, OTS is now composed of 63 premier universities and institutions throughout the world, including LSU. Graduate students at LSU are eligible to participate in the renowned field courses in tropical biology in Costa Rica and other countries and to apply for tropical research fellowships through OTS. Undergraduate biology majors are eligible for the OTS Semester Abroad, an integrated program of environmental sciences and Latin American culture.

OTS offices are located at Duke University in the USA and in San Jose in Costa Rica. Three field stations in Costa Rica are located in tropical rain forest (La Selva), tropical dry forest (Palo Verde), and tropical montane forest (Las Cruces) environments. La Selva Biological Station, OTS’s flagship facility, is a modern biological research laboratory in the midst of a 3,000-acre lowland rain forest preserve. OTS provides logistical support and offers the use of equipment and field stations for field research in tropical biology. Funds are available through OTS for qualified graduate students to initiate research projects.

Additional information regarding the program and course application forms are available from LSU’s OTS Delegate, Dr. Kyle Harms, Department of Biological Sciences, LSU, 202 Life Sciences Building and at kharms@lsu.edu; or from the Organization for Tropical Studies, North American Office, P.O. Box 90630, Durham, North Carolina 27708 and at www.ots.duke.edu.

Pennington Biomedical Research Center

The Pennington Biomedical Research Center (PBRC) conducts research in discovering the triggers of chronic disease using innovative technologies that promote healthier lives across the lifespan. Many of its full-time scientists hold adjunct appointments at various LSU campuses. Similarly, several faculty at LSU, LSU Agricultural Center, the LSU Health Science Center in New Orleans, and teaching hospitals hold adjunct appointments at Pennington Biomedical.

The Center has research programs in the areas of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancer with a focus on nutritional, activity, and genetic contributions to these common chronic diseases. Pennington Biomedical has core laboratory facilities that support more than 50 research units within the center that are distributed across basic, clinical, and population science research.