LSU'S Biweekly Newsletter for Faculty & Staff
June 3, 2005 |
VOL. 21, NO. 17 |
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| Pictured left to right are Paul Murrill, a former chancellor of LSU; Huel Perkins, honorary degree recipient; and commencement speaker Chancellor Sean O’Keefe at LSU’s 256th Commencement Ceremony. |
LSU Chancellor Sean O’Keefe delivered the address and 3,275 students received degrees at LSU’s 256th commencement ceremonies in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Friday, May 20.
Degrees were conferred on all students and Ph.D. students received their diplomas individually. Following the main ceremony, there were separate ceremonies for each college in which all students received their diplomas individually.
Some 421 students graduated with honors, including 46 students who received University Medals for graduating with perfect grade-point averages. University Medalists were recognized at a special ceremony at the LSU Faculty Club on Thursday, May 19.
Thirty-five students graduated from the Honors College. Thirty-two, who received Sophomore Honors Distinction and completed the upper-division honors program, graduated with College Honors. Three, who completed the upper-division honors program, graduated with Upper Division Honors Distinction.
During the main ceremony, honorary degrees were awarded to Huel Perkins, Ph.D., who was the first African-American to achieve professional tenure at LSU, to serve in the upper administration at LSU and to be named professor emeritus at LSU; and to Donna Brazile, LSU alumna, who became the first African-American woman to lead a presidential campaign in American history when she managed the Gore-Lieberman 2000 presidential campaign. Both received doctor of humane letters degrees.
Two posthumous degrees were awarded on Commencement Day. A bachelor of arts degree in communication studies was awarded to the late Lori Ann Rholdon from the College of Arts & Sciences. Rholdon, a native of Harvey, La., was killed in a car accident earlier this spring and was enrolled in the final courses she needed to graduate. A master of business administration was awarded to the late Edgar Joseph Schexnayder III, a St. Amant native who passed away after losing a battle with cancer. He had completed his degree requirements at the time of his death in April.
Also during the main ceremony, LSU Faculty Senate President and Professor of Psychology Claire Advokat was the mace bearer and Rabbi Barry Weinstein of Congregation B’nai Israel delivered the invocation and benediction. Lisette Oropesa, who received a bachelor of music degree and recently won the national Metropolitan Opera Competition in New York City, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the LSU Alma Mater.
Some well-known LSU athletes graduated, including Rudy Niswanger, starting center for the LSU football team and a University Medalist; Jason Determann, pitcher for the baseball team and honors graduate; Jordan Faircloth and Lane Mestepey, also pitchers for the baseball team; and Ben Wilkerson, who was a starting center for the football team before getting injured last season.
In addition, four Air Force ROTC and six Army ROTC students received military commissions.
The oldest graduate was 67, and the youngest was 19. The May 2005 graduates represented 60 Louisiana parishes, 43 states and 74 countries. Almost 56 percent of the graduates were women.
The names of students who received degrees can be found at http://www.lsu.edu/commencement.
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| Pictured left to right are Distinguished Research Master Award winners Brian Hales and Cornelia Yarbrough and Interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies Harold Silverman. |
LSU’s Council on Research has named Cornelia Yarbrough and Brian Hales recipients of the 2004 Distinguished Research Master Awards. Yarbrough and Hales accepted their awards in a ceremony at the LSU Faculty Club on May 18.
The Distinguished Research Master Awards are the university’s highest research honor and have been presented annually since 1972. The awards recognize excellence in research and scholarship and consist of $1,500 annual salary increases and Chancellor’s Medals.
“Drs. Hales and Yarbrough are two of the brightest examples of the quality of LSU’s researchers and the impact they are having on their fields of study and Louisiana’s citizens,” said Harold Silverman, interim vice chancellor for research and graduate studies. “We presented them with the university’s highest research honor because they have given tremendously of their talents and time throughout their careers.”
Yarbrough, the Derryl and Helen Haymon professor of music education, received the Distinguished Research Master of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for 2004. Her research centers on the practice and processes of teaching and learning music.
“Through her research leadership and her ability to attract other outstanding research-oriented professors to LSU, Cornelia Yarbrough has put the LSU graduate music education program on the national map,” said Ronald Ross, dean of the College of Music and Dramatic Arts and Penniman Family Professor of Music. “Her reputation as one of this country’s most outstanding researchers in her field is secure and without contradiction.”
Yarbrough, who teaches Introduction to Research in Music for all levels, began her career at LSU in 1986 and served as chair of the music education division from 1986 to 2000. Prior to coming to LSU, she spent 13 years at Syracuse University, where she received that university's highest academic award, the Chancellor's Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement.
Yarbrough is currently in her fifth year as editor of the “Journal of Research in Music Education,” the music education profession’s leading journal. She has been the recipient of LSU’s graduate teaching award and the Music Educators National Conference Senior Researcher Award. She has also been recognized as the 12th most productive, in the number of publications, and eighth most eminent, in number of citations, researcher in the field of music education.
Yarbrough earned a bachelor of music education degree from Stetson University and master’s and doctoral degrees in music education from Florida State University. She has had more than 50 articles published in refereed journals.
The Distinguished Research Master of Engineering, Science and Technology was awarded to Hales, a professor of chemistry and an adjunct professor in biological sciences. Hales began his career at LSU in 1973 as an assistant professor in chemistry and served as chair of the Department of Chemistry from 1997 to 2001. His specialty is nitrogen fixation, a process that is critically important for agricultural systems in particular, and for most higher life forms in general.
“The research accomplishments of Brian Hales over the past 30 years have been truly outstanding,” said Kevin Carman, dean of the College of Basic Sciences. “He is highly regarded by preeminent researchers throughout the world and broadly recognized as a true leader in his field.”
In 2001, Hales was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and, in 2002, he served as chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Nitrogen Fixation. He has received the Phi Kappa Phi Award of Merit in Research and the LSU Alumni Faculty Excellence Award.
Hales received his bachelor of science degree from Carnegie Institute of Technology and his doctoral degree from the University of Minnesota. Before coming to LSU, Hales spent two years as a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and a year as a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, where he worked under Nobel Laureate Lord George Porter.
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Steven Watkins |
LSU Associate Professor of Chemistry Steven Watkins has been named by President George W. Bush as a recipient of the 2004 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, or PAESMEM.
PAESMEM, a program supported and administered by the National Science Foundation, honors individuals and institutions “that have enhanced the participation of underrepresented groups – such as women, minorities and people with disabilities – in science, mathematics and engineering education at all levels.” Since its inception in 1996, the PAESMEM program has recognized 87 individuals and 67 institutions. Each award includes a $10,000 grant for continued mentoring work.
Watkins received his award in a ceremony at the White House on Monday, May 16.
This year, nine individuals and five institutions received the award. The 2004 individual awardees were drawn from institutions across the country, including Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Washington. According to the National Science Foundation, all of the winners “are highly regarded mentors and have pioneered innovative and resourceful programs.”
Watkins joins two other LSU professors who have received this Presidential Award in the past, Boyd Professor of Chemistry and Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives Isiah Warner, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Jack Holmes Professor of Engineering Su-Seng Pang.
Watkins, director of the graduate studies program in chemistry, has been a driving force in a program that regularly produces the largest number of African-American chemistry doctorates of any university in the country. While credited with success in improving graduation rates, Watkins has also been involved in recruitment, retention and outreach activities, as well as advising other LSU departments on their minority-recruitment efforts. He has also helped graduates find gainful employment in the academic, governmental and corporate sectors.
“In chemistry, we have a very diverse department that has bought into what we are doing, so it has really been a group effort,” said Watkins. “It’s all about helping these young adults into and through the graduate program.”
Watkins took over his position as director of graduate studies in chemistry in 1990. He said he immediately began working with the associate dean of the graduate school at the time, Dan Fogel, to develop funding and initiatives to attract and retain minority students. He credits the 1992 arrival of Warner, who is also the Philip W. West Professor of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, with helping to jump-start the program’s success in attracting African-American students from around the country.
While developing wetlands and utilizing a community’s location near a river may sound like a typical landscape architecture project in Louisiana, a class at LSU has traveled a few hundred miles to put a unique spin on it. Throw in a few mountains and valleys, and right away it is clear that this is not the typical project in the Pelican State.
LSU Professor V. Frank Chaffin’s landscape architecture class was given the unique opportunity of developing landscape design plans for Cashiers, N.C., a quaint summer-destination village located in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
Chaffin, a summer resident of Cashiers, has seen rapidly increasing, uncontrolled development in the village each time he has visited and felt that his class could provide some assistance with the growth.
The class was asked to address issues such as traffic, water quality, affordable housing, the development of wetland areas and lack of pedestrian-friendly spaces. The class will provide guidance for future planning in the community.
“ The students produced 10 different plans that reflect four basic development strategies with the hope that the local community will engage in lively and productive discussions to refine their work and determine a direction for the community’s future,” Chaffin said.
There were concerns with “outsiders” developing a plan for the community, but Chaffin did not see a problem there. His students spent time early in the semester learning about Cashiers’ unique culture and designed plans that enhance the area’s natural, rural attributes.
Chaffin compares the Appalachian culture and traditions to the Cajun culture of Southern Louisiana and feels that the students’ strong personal pride for the Cajun culture will help to preserve the Appalachian traditions.
The students visited Cashiers in February to see the area and speak to local residents and businesses. When public meetings were sparsely attended by residents, the students hit the streets, popping into businesses and speaking to people at grocery stores and the post office. After the trip, the students were able to identify with the “sociological issue” that Chaffin had told them about.
This sociological issue involves the polarization between the natives and the newcomers, or the summer people and the year-rounders. Surprisingly though, the students discovered that the two sides want similar things for their community. Their foremost concern is that the design plans take into account Cashiers’ unique natural environment.
Cashiers includes natural charms such as waterfalls, hiking trails, streams and slopes. A key goal in the design plans was to relate future development of the town to wetlands along Cashiers Creek. Several miles downstream, this stream joins with others to form the Chattooga, a wild and scenic river.
The students’ designs utilize the natural environment with ideas that include subordinating buildings and structures and moving the center of the community toward the wetland areas to draw the people closer nature.
Other major issues revolve around the traffic concerns of this developing community. With Highways 107 and 64 intersecting in the village, the students looked for ways to reroute traffic away from the major intersection.
The students looked to develop streets, as well as parking lots for retail and commercial uses. The hope is to open the community to be more pedestrian friendly while diverting heavy traffic off the main highways.
Along with Chaffin, Charles Fryling, associate professor of landscape architecture, and Brad Cantrell, assistant professor, assisted the students on the project.
The final plans will be presented to the people of Cashiers later this month by Chaffin and a few of his students.
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| Andrea Houston |
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David Crary
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LSU’s E. J. Ourso College of Business has formally announced that David Crary has been appointed associate dean for M.B.A programs and executive education. In addition, Andrea Houston has been appointed interim associate dean for academics.
In 2004, the E. J. Ourso College reorganized its deanships to create the associate dean for M.B.A programs and executive education and associate dean for academics positions. Crary accepted the associate dean for academics position, as well as the associate dean for M.B.A programs and executive education position on an interim basis. After the college conducted a national search, Crary was named associate dean for M.B.A programs and executive education on a permanent basis. Crary has been with LSU for more than 30 years. He is a professor in the E. J. Ourso College’s finance department and previously served as director of Executive Education.
In his role as associate dean, Crary will be responsible for the Flores M.B.A Program, including full-time, Executive, and Professional curriculums and the Our Lady of the Lake extension M.B.A program. Crary will also direct the college’s Executive Education programs, which include certificate seminars for working professionals.
Houston, an associate professor in the E. J. Ourso College’s information systems and decision sciences department, has been appointed to the associate dean for academics position on an interim basis. Houston joined LSU in 1998 and is a Marjory B. Ourso Center for Excellence in teaching professor.
As interim associate dean for academics, Houston will be responsible for the undergraduate and master’s programs. Her responsibilities also include the master’s of public administration and Ph.D. programs.
LSU’s Louisiana Business & Technology Center was named the 2005 Randall M. Whaley Incubator of the Year at the National Business Incubation Association’s 19th International Conference on Business Incubation in Baltimore, Md. The Whaley award, NBIA’s highest honor, recognizes overall incubator excellence.
LBTC, a center at LSU’s E. J. Ourso College of Business, has played a vital role in Louisiana’s economic development efforts since 1988, when LSU partnered with the Chamber of Greater Baton Rouge and the Louisiana Public Facilities Authority to open the technology incubation program on a trial basis. Seventeen years and more than 100 graduate companies later, the program is still going strong and provides assistance to small businesses and entrepreneurs within the capital city region and throughout the state.
“I am delighted the LBTC and its clients and graduates have been recognized as the best in the industry,” said Sean O’Keefe, LSU chancellor. “This award is the latest in a long list of well-deserved acknowledgments of the program’s success in fostering entrepreneurship. It is obvious that the LBTC has a proven track record for recognizing the potential for success and developing the talent that will create jobs and continue to drive Louisiana’s economy.”
Business incubation programs like LBTC catalyze the process of starting and growing companies by providing entrepreneurs with the expertise, networks and tools they need to make their ventures successful.
Since 1988, LBTC-assisted businesses have created nearly 9,000 jobs in Louisiana. In 2004 alone, the incubator’s 25 client companies employed 75 full-time and 35 part-time or student workers, had a combined payroll of more than $2 million, and boasted combined sales of $6.6 million.
“LBTC is a catalyst in making LSU and the E. J. Ourso College an economic engine for Louisiana,” Robert Sumichrast, dean of the E. J. Ourso College, said. “Through LBTC, the E. J. Ourso College’s M.B.As have the opportunity to gain first-hand experience helping clients write and develop business plans, while our faculty are called in to consult and assist small-business clients of the center. This dynamic partnership aids the college in fulfilling its service mission to the state and has assisted the college in receiving top rankings in entrepreneurship from Forbes.com, the Princeton Review and Entrepreneur magazine within the last few years.”
LBTC Executive Director Charles D’Agostino, who has been with the program since its inception, attributes much of its success to its high-quality services and the support of the university, state and local governments and business leaders.
“It helps to become a valuable resource to the community,” he said. “Thanks to a good number of success stories, we’ve been able to establish LBTC as the ‘go-to’ guy for business assistance in the community and the state.”
This assistance doesn’t end when a business graduates from LBTC’s incubation program. LBTC staff contact incubator graduates regularly to ensure they have the support and resources they need to continue their growth.
“Business incubation isn’t a one-time act,” D’Agostino said. “Our job isn’t over with the graduation ceremony. Sometimes, graduates aren’t equipped to be totally on their own the minute they leave the incubator. We can be a no-cost sounding board or devil’s advocate for these companies, so they can continue the momentum they started while at the incubator.”
In addition to operating 45,000 square feet of incubator space in four buildings on LSU’s campus, LBTC manages the university’s Small Business Development Center and the Louisiana Technology Transfer Office. Each year, LSU’s SBDC counsels approximately 350 clients from nine parishes in the Baton Rouge area. In 2004, these businesses created more than 200 jobs and had sales of $16 million.
As manager of the state’s technology transfer office, LBTC helps foster business relationships between Louisiana businesses and federal laboratories and helps Louisiana technology businesses prepare grant applications for the federal Small Business Innovation Research program. Over the last three years, LBTC clients have received more than $17 million in SBIR awards.
LBTC supports its operations through several revenue sources, including client rents and service fees; seminars, workshops and training events; and service and management consulting contracts. These contracts enhance client services and add to the long-term financial success of the program, D’Agostino said.
In 2004 the E. J. Ourso College and LBTC partnered with local business magazine, The Baton Rouge Business Report, to sponsor the New Venture Business Plan Competition. Unlike other business plan competitions which mainly serve as academic exercises, the New Venture Business Plan competition requires the winning team to establish a company. The main goal of the competition is to spark economic development in Louisiana and support local entrepreneurs by helping them get that “great idea” up and running.
The Randall M. Whaley Incubator of the Year award honors the memory of Whaley, former president of University City Science Center in Philadelphia and founding chairman of the National Business Incubation Association. Friends of University City Science Center endow the award.
The NBIA is the world’s leading organization advancing business incubation and entrepreneurship. Each year, the NBIA Incubation Awards honor the business incubators, client companies and graduates that exemplify the best of the industry.