LSU'S Biweekly Newsletter for Faculty & Staff
October 21, 2005 |
VOL. 22, NO. 4 |
|
| Pictured are representatives from participating universities and Louisiana Higher Education: LSU System President William Jenkins, LSU Interim Vice Chancellor of Research and Graduate Studies Harold Silverman, LSU Chancellor Sean O’Keefe, University of Louisiana System President Sally Clausen, Southern University System Interim President Edward Jackson and Louisiana Board of Regents Commissioner of Higher Education “T-Joe” Savoie. |
LSU and seven other Louisiana institutions have received a prestigious IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence, or INBRE, grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant totals $16.9 million over a five-year period.
LSU is the lead university on the INBRE grant and the other institutions involved are Southern University, LSU-Shreveport, Louisiana Tech University, the LSU Health Sciences Center and the University of Louisiana at Monroe. The LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and Tulane University are part of a special one-year supplement to the grant.
Researchers from Tulane and the LSU Health Sciences Center are participating in the INBRE grant research, despite damage to facilities from Hurricane Katrina. Indeed, several are currently working out of laboratory facilities at LSU and other INBRE partner institutions.
“At a time when our state is facing unprecedented challenges, the need to combine our intellectual and technological strengths has never been greater. Collaboration is the hallmark of this extraordinary grant project and it is something that we at the LSU System encourage and wholeheartedly endorse,” said LSU System President William Jenkins. “Building a strong community of researchers who support and encourage one another is key to innovation and crucial to moving Louisiana forward toward a brighter future.”
The main INBRE grant award is for $16,638,212. The supplement to the grant adds another $331,829, bringing the total funding to $16,970,041.
“Good news like this could not have come at a better time. This is a tremendous achievement for all of the universities involved and for the entire state,” said LSU Chancellor Sean O’Keefe. “This important grant will help ensure that LSU and Louisiana are on the cutting edge of biomedical research and innovation.”
Supported by the NIH’s National Center for Research Resources’ Division of Research Infrastructure, INBRE grants are intended to “enhance the caliber of scientific faculty at research institutions and undergraduate schools, thereby attracting more promising students.”
“The NIH INBRE grant will greatly advance the level of research these Louisiana institutions are conducting in the biomedical sciences,” said Harold Silverman, interim vice chancellor for research & graduate studies at LSU. “More faculty and student researchers will be involved, better collaboration will take place and the best technology will be harnessed like never before.”
Silverman explained that LSU and the LSU Health Sciences Center will be the primary research partners serving to provide infrastructure and mentoring expertise for faculty researchers at the other institutions. The idea, he said, is to establish computation and communication networks and “people” networks in order to enhance biomedical research in the state. Each area leader at LSU will team with or serve as a mentor to faculty members at the other institutions, as they work together on specific research projects. Ultimately, the goal is to involve more researchers and students and to encourage the researchers to seek additional grants from other sources to support their work.
According to Silverman, the INBRE grant is broken down into four core areas: administrative, biocomputing, cell and molecular biology and outreach. As the principal investigator for the grant, Silverman will serve as the leader of the administrative area. Edward Seidel, director of LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology, will lead the biocomputing area, and Gus Kousoulas, professor of virology and biotechnology in the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, will lead the cell/molecular biology group. LSU Biological Sciences Associate Professor Bill Wischusen will serve as leader of the outreach area.
The purpose of the INBRE grant is to support the recipient institutions in establishing “a multi-disciplinary research network with a scientific focus” that will “build and strengthen the lead and partner institutions’ biomedical research expertise and infrastructure,” as well as “increase the research base and capacity by providing research support to faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students at the participating institutions.”
In addition, the grant provides research opportunities for undergraduate students and serves as a “pipeline” for students to continue in health research careers. It also aims to provide outreach activities to students at undergraduate and other institutions participating in the state’s network and “enhance the science and technology knowledge of the state’s workforce.”
Due to Hurricane Rita, the September meeting of the LSU Board of Supervisors was rescheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 5. Topics covered during the meeting included:
In other news, the board approved the terms of three agreements allowing the New Orleans Saints to play home games in Tiger Stadium. The Saints will play four games in Tiger Stadium on Oct. 30, Nov. 6, Dec. 4 and Dec. 18. Board members also voted to allow the New Orleans Hornets basketball team to play six home games and one exhibition game in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Under the terms of all the agreements, the teams will pay maintenance costs to use the LSU Athletic facilities and all the teams retain the souvenir, memorabilia and novelty rights for their respective team products. The use of video boards in Tiger Stadium and the PMAC are available for the New Orleans teams. LSU will provide and collect payment for all parking and concession services and remit 50 percent of gross revenue to the Saints, but will retain 100 percent of gross revenue from these activities from the Hornets.
O’Keefe noted the university is only collecting the costs for operating the facilities. He also went on to say while the added events to these facilities will present great challenges for LSU Athletics, the group knows that support for these teams is important to the economic viability of the state.
“ Because we are active members of this state and committed to its economic recovery, LSU Athletics is responding to the challenge,” O’Keefe said.
The LSU College of Art and Design and the LSU Museum of Art recently received donations from LSU alumnus Alfred C. Glassell Jr. to support their activities in the Shaw Center for the Arts.
The LSU School of Art will create an endowment to help fund exhibits and other events and has recognized the donor by renaming the LSU School of Art Gallery as the Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery. The museum has named the conference room on the Charles Phelps Manship Jr. floor of the museum, the Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Board Room. Michael Robinson of the LSU Foundation was instrumental in helping to secure these gifts.
“ Mr. Glassell’s visionary support is rightly acknowledged by the gallery’s name change,” said Stuart Baron, director of the LSU School of Art. “By encouraging us to use our exhibitions to bring thought-provoking and significant contemporary artistic endeavors to Baton Rouge, we are charged to answer the call not just for ourselves, but for the entire community as we plan to offer something to every segment of Baton Rouge society and work in conjunction with others to that end.”
The LSU School of Art donation will be used to advance the gallery’s rich exhibition program by supporting further exhibitions of substance and bringing farther-reaching contemporary artists and their ideas to Baton Rouge. In addition, it will help to support community art activities and have the Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery become an area for all of Baton Rouge to enjoy and learn about art.
“ We are thrilled with this generous gift and the opportunities it affords the museum at this critical time in its life. It is especially gratifying to know that Mr. Glassell’s legacy, both through his family connection to the historic Auto Hotel and his extraordinary affinity for the arts, will have a special place in the LSU Museum of Art,” said Laura Lindsay, interim executive director of the LSU Museum of Art.
The LSU Museum of Art opened in March 2005 and manifests a decade-long vision to offer LSU and the Baton Rouge community greater access to its diverse art collection, changing exhibitions, education programs and special events – all within 45,000 square feet of exhibition space, spacious administrative offices, quality storage areas for the collection and common spaces for public programs and community use in the Shaw Center for the Arts. The museum’s board room, with views of the Mississippi River and Lafayette Plaza, is encased in the same channel glass as the exterior of the center. Centered in the creative heartbeat of the museum complex, the room hosts donors, staff and visitors in meetings and special events.
“ Aside from the LSU Museum of Art, the School of Art Gallery in the Shaw Center for the Arts is the finest, most contemporary exhibition space in the city, and it certainly enjoys the most enviable location of any visual arts presentation site. Downtown Baton Rouge will continue its vital transformation, and its successes thus far have strongly stated that the arts are a fundamental necessity in the lives of the citizens of Greater Baton Rouge. LSU has been at the forefront of these activities, and the School of Art is proud to be an important component of this cultural phoenix,” Baron said.
Glassell has spent his lifetime pursuing excellence in the petroleum industry, marine biology research, sports, civic affairs, philanthropy and the collecting of fine arts. Born on a cotton plantation near Shreveport, he distinguished himself at LSU as president of the student body, member of 13 honor societies and ROTC commander. His father built the former Auto Hotel, which is now home to the LSU Museum of Art and the School of Art gallery.
Upon graduation, he became a leader in the energy business, extending and discovering oil and gas fields along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas. He was the founder of Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp., the first gas transmission system from Texas to New York, and has served on the boards of powerful corporations like Transco, El Paso Natural Gas and First City Bank Corp.
An avid sportsman, Glassell achieved fame as one of the foremost anglers in the world. In 1953, he set the world record for the largest marlin ever caught on a hand-held rod and reel. At 1,560 pounds, this record remains today, and the world’s largest game fish resides on view at the Smithsonian Institution. As a tribute to his skills, he was pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1954 and inducted into the International Game Fish Association’s Hall of Fame in 2001.
Glassell, a world-famous collector of art, was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1970. Realizing people’s fundamental need for hands-on experience in the arts and recognizing the lack of studio opportunities, he established the Glassell School of Art in Houston. Since its dedication in 1979, the Glassell School has provided diverse training in the fine arts to children, adults, emerging artists, hospital patients and older Americans.
Glassell, elected chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1990, made his most generous gift to the museum soon after. As a lover and collector of Asian, Pre-Columbian and African gold, he donated and loaned the work of a lifetime to the museum. With his gift, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, became the only museum in the United States where visitors could view an extensive collection of African gold.
When the LSU Museum of Art opened in the Shaw Center for the Arts in March of this year, Glassell underwrote the cost of bringing the extraordinary traveling exhibition, African Gold: Selections from the Glassell Collection, organized and circulated by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Approximately 135 works of art from the region formerly known as the Gold Coast was on display at the exhibit dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
As LSU moves forward with the Flagship Agenda, it is crucial that it aligns its fundraising, public affairs and lobbying activities, and communicates its achievements effectively to all its constituencies - faculty, students, staff and alumni - as well as to the general public throughout the nation and beyond.
The university has created the new Office of Communications and University Relations to help accomplish this important goal. The three areas that the office is composed of are Institutional Advancement, Public Affairs and Legislative & External Affairs. They will report directly to the Vice Chancellor of Communications Michael Ruffner, who will coordinate the activities of these three functional areas.
The office formerly known as “University Relations,” located at West Lakeshore Drive, has been re-designated as Public Affairs, and will continue to provide a wide variety of communication activities. The reorganization is similar to that of an agency model, which consists of five operating departments. This realignment will create additional capacity and provide better service to the LSU community. The five departments and their directors are as follows:
These directors and members of their departments will work hand in hand with the schools, departments, faculty and administration to tell the “LSU story” in engaging and innovative ways. Please call them directly with questions or for assistance.
The LSU Museum of Art, or MOA, is presenting the exhibition “Vanishing Wetlands: Two Views.” The exhibition opens on Friday, Oct. 28, and is organized and displayed by the LSU MOA. “Vanishing Wetlands: Two Views” showcases Louisiana’s coastal parishes through paintings, photographs and multi-media components.
Through artworks, maps, information panels and various multi-media presentations, the Shell-sponsored exhibit illustrates the passion that two Baton Rouge artists, C.C. Lockwood and Rhea Gary, share for the restoration of Louisiana’s eroding coast and their desire to heighten public awareness. The exhibition exposes the scientific, social and political impacts of this environmental loss. It brings to light a glaring paradox – what we see and understand to be a “picturesque” view of the wetlands region is greatly at odds with the vast coastal deterioration that occurs underwater, hidden from view but well known to scientists.
The exhibition presents the documentary wildlife and wetlands photography of C.C. Lockwood, a naturalist who has recorded the life of the rivers, bayous and marshes of South Louisiana for almost 30 years. It tracks episodes from his recent 2004 project, Marsh Mission. With his artistic collaborator, painter Rhea Gary, they documented the wetlands and their inhabitants to bring attention to a significant yet rapidly vanishing ecological and economic zone.
Lockwood’s photographs and Gary’s paintings about this issue are timely; they are part of a larger state and national effort to bring attention to the phenomenon of coastal erosion, restoration and management. “Vanishing Wetlands: Two Views” shows how coastal erosion affects the future of Louisiana and addresses what individuals do to arrest this plight.
The LSU Museum of Art’s new location is in the Shaw Center for the Arts, located in downtown Baton Rouge overlooking the Mississippi River. The museum presents rotating, historical and contemporary exhibitions. Selections from the permanent collection are always on display. The 3,500-work collection includes 17th–20th-century American and British portraiture; landscape painting, prints and decorative arts; pre-Civil War New Orleans silver; historical art from India, China, Japan and South America; and contemporary Inuit sculpture.
General Admission for adults is $8; seniors, ages 65+, students and LSU faculty/staff is $6; children 5 to 17 is $4. Children under 5 are admitted free. Museum and Museum Store hours are: Sunday: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.; Thursday: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Monday: closed.
Nominations are being accepted for the following:
George H. Deer Distinguished Teaching Award, which is presented to an instructor or assistant professor who regularly teaches courses in which University College students are enrolled. Nominations should be restricted to persons having taught University College students in three of the past four regular semesters including the semester in which the award is made.
The Alumni Association Teaching Assistant Award is given in recognition of outstanding teaching ability and service to students. At the freshman level, teaching assistants make up a significant portion of the instructional program. The nominations are limited to graduate teaching assistants.
Criteria for awards listed above: Nominations should be made on the basis of excellence in teaching, genuine interest in students, outstanding relationships with colleagues and demonstrated leadership in the promotion of improved instructional programs.
Advisor of the Year Award is based on the national criteria of the National Academic Advising Association-NACADA. The award is designed to honor individuals who are making significant contributions to the improvement of academic advising and to disseminate information about these contributions to other professionals in the field. Only one nominee will be selected. The nominee selected from the campus will become LSU’s Advisor of the Year and his/her name will be submitted as LSU’s representative for national competition as National Advisor of the Year. Any individual serving as an academic adviser and employed by LSU may be nominated. The nominee need not be a NACADA member.
Criteria: Nominations will be evaluated on the evidence of effective advising qualities and practices that distinguish the nominee as an outstanding academic adviser.
Nomination procedure for all awards: Nominations may be initiated by individual teaching assistants, faculty members, department chairs, staff members and any recognized organization within the University. The nomination packet should include the nominee’s resume, and letters of recommendation should include a letter from the applicant’s department head. The supporting data must include criteria by which the nominee’s competency and service to students are judged, and a statement from the nominee outlining his/her goals. An evaluation form, which should be used as a guide in preparing the nomination, is available by contacting the University College. This evaluation form is used by the selection committee in their deliberations.
Nominations for all awards should be submitted no later than Friday, Dec. 2 to: Awards, c/o Debra Blacher, University College, 150-D Allen Hall. One original and eight copies are required.