Jose A. Romagnoli
Designated Professor
Chemical Engineering
Designated Professor
Chemical Engineering
LSU'S Biweekly Newsletter for Faculty & Staff
February 23, 2007 |
VOL. 23, NO. 12 |
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| Jose A. Romagnoli Designated Professor Chemical Engineering |
What was your previous position and where?
I was the ICI Chair Professor of Process Systems Engineering at the University of Sydney, Australia.
What is your research interest?
My areas of interest include all aspects of Process Systems Engineering, with special focus on advanced linear and nonlinear process control, advanced modelling architectures for complex processes, design and synthesis with economic-environmental-operability considerations, intelligent process monitoring, data processing and reconciliation and artificial intelligence.
What do you hope to accomplish at LSU?
As the Cain Chair Professor of Process Systems Engineering, I hope to be able to contribute to the excellence of the College of Engineering and the Cain Chemical Engineering Department in this important area.
What brought you to LSU?
I was offered the Cain Chair Professor position at the Department of Chemical Engineering and this provides me with new challenges and opportunities.
What do you enjoy most about LSU?
The challenges of the new position and the unique cultural life of Louisiana.
LSU’s most ambitious fundraising campaign to date, “Forever LSU,” is moving full steam ahead. The university has already raised more than one-third of its $750 million goal, and the campaign does not end until 2010.
“We are very pleased that LSU’s alumni and supporters have stepped up to make this happen,” said Michael Ruffner, vice chancellor for communication and university relations at LSU. “We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has contributed thus far, and we are calling on those who have not yet participated to help us keep steadily working toward our goal.”
As of Dec. 31, 2006, the campaign has raised a total of $283 million. More than $33 million of that was raised in six months, from the campaign’s public launch in June 2006 through December 2006. The remainder was raised during the campaign’s silent phase, which began in 2001.
Private funds raised by the “Forever LSU” campaign will be used to expand the university’s academic and research capabilities and help LSU compete with the top flagship universities around the country. LSU’s strategic plan to accomplish this, called the National Flagship Agenda, calls for increasing student, faculty and university-wide support and improving campus infrastructure.
The “Forever LSU” campaign combines the efforts of the university’s three fundraising bodies – the LSU Alumni Association, the LSU Foundation and Tiger Athletic Foundation.
“It is gratifying to see the way our three fund-raising arms have come together to meet this ambitious challenge,” Ruffner said. “It is working quite well, and we hope to have additional success stories to tell in the weeks and months ahead.”
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| The LSU Office of Equity, Diversity & Community Outreach conducted a workshop on the role of race and racial differences in the classroom. Pictured at the Building Bridges event are, from left to right, Seminar Facilitator Marco Barker and Presenters Brij Mohan and Roland Mitchell. |
The LSU Office of Equity, Diversity & Community Outreach, or EDCO, in collaboration with the Center for Faculty Development, conducted a workshop on the role of race and racial differences in the classroom titled “Building Bridges: Teaching and Learning Across the Racial Divide.” This interactive seminar was presented by Brij Mohan, professsor of social work, and Roland Mitchell of Educational Theory, Policy and Practice and facilitated by Marco Barker, assistant to the vice provost.
The purpose of this workshop was to address how racial differences among members of a learning community impact teaching and learning outcomes. The Building Bridges seminar represents one of the three workshops that are a part of the EDCO Spring Faculty Enrichment Series. This three-part diversity series takes place over the course of three months in conjunction with some of LSU’s diversity programming. The seminars are co-facilitated by a panel of faculty and structured like colloquies. This format enables participants to have bona fide conversations about major topics around pedagogy and the impact of teaching on students and the classroom environment.
EDCO is an office of Academic Affairs and is directed by Vice Provost Katrice Albert. In addition to institution-wide initiatives, EDCO supervises the Community-University Partnership, Campus-Community Coalition for Change, Office of Multicultural Affairs, Women’s Center, and works closely with the Commission on the Status of Women and the University Ombudsperson to better address inequities and practices that threaten civil liberties and rights.
The second installment of the three-part diversity series is “Feminist Pedagogy: Cross-Cultural Approaches to Teaching.” It will be held on Tuesday, March 20, from 2 to 2:30 p.m. in the LSU Women’s Center. If you would like to attend any or all of these workshops, please sign-up through the Center for Faculty Development by visiting their Web site at www.lsu.edu/celt. Please follow the links at the Faculty Development Page. The office looks forward to engaging faculty, staff and graduate teaching assistants in rich and conscious-raising dialogue.
LSU alumna Donna Brazile will visit LSU on March 1 to kick off the campus’s celebration of Women’s History Month with a public talk titled “Political Action, Engagement and Leadership.” The public lecture begins at 3 p.m. in the Holliday Forum, which is housed in the journalism building.
The lecture is sponsored by The Manship School of Mass Communication’s Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs in partnership with the LSU Commission on the Status of Women.
Brazile is chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute, or VRI, and is the founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates, LLC, a political consulting and grassroots advocacy firm based in Washington, D.C.
A veteran Democratic political strategist, Brazile was the first African-American to lead a major presidential campaign as the campaign manager of Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman’s 2000 presidential run. She is also the author of the best-selling “Cooking with Grease,” a memoir of her life of political and social activism.
“Donna Brazile’s visit is the second in a series of collaborations, in this case between the Reilly Center and the history department, sponsored by the Commission on the Status of Women to foster exchanges between university units,” said CSW chair Adelaide Russo. “The commission has already fostered a collaboration between Women’s and Gender Studies and the E. J. Ourso College of Business with the visit of former AT&T president Betsy Bernard, and plans an upcoming event, the ‘Guerrilla Girls On Tour’ performance, which joins the Women’s Center and the Manship Theatre.”
“She (Brazile) is one of the most inspiring speakers I have ever heard and an excellent role model for LSU students,” said Maribel Dietz, associate professor of history.
Other activities scheduled for Women’s History month include the WGS Graduate Student conference on March 9 at Peabody Hall, a Women in the Arts exhibit that same evening at the Women’s Center, the ongoing Gender on Film series on March 13 and 21 as well as a number of departmental talks and brown bag lunch discussions. The celebration will culminate with the “Guerrilla Girls On Tour” performance and workshop on April 9 and 10.
The LSU School of Landscape Architecture is pleased to announce it has received two major gifts totaling more than $575,000.
The first, from Jeff and Wendy Carbo, is a major estate gift to the school’s Leadership Fund. The Leadership Fund provides opportunities for student leadership training, national student professional organization support and faculty leadership development. Jeff is a 1985 graduate of LSU’s School of Landscape Architecture and principal of Jeff Carbo-Landscape Architects-Site Planners in Alexandria. Wendy is a 1988 graduate of LSU’s College of Education.
The second gift is from the estate of Herbert Wiener. Herbert graduated with a bachelor’s degree from LSU’s College of Agriculture in 1941 and received his master’s degree from LSU in architecture in 1948. The gift endows a major student scholarship for the school. The scholarship recognizes the contributions of Robert S. Reich, founder of LSU’s Landscape Architecture program. The scholarship will be named for both Wiener and Reich.
“The College of Art and Design is extremely appreciative of these generous gifts,” said Dean David Cronrath. “If we are to continue on our trajectory of excellence for the school, we will need additional resources to accomplish our objectives. We are very thankful that the school has such supportive and generous alumni.”
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| Pictured are children at a Mardi Gras celebration in 1886, which corresponds to the theme of this year’s symposium. |
The LSU Rural Life Museum presents the 13th annual Ione E. Burden Symposium on March 3 at the museum. The title of this year’s conference is “Fun and Frivolity: Entertainment in 19th-century Louisiana.” Registration begins at 8 a.m., followed by the first speaker at 8:45 a.m. The event will conclude with a meet-the-speakers reception at 3 p.m. The symposium honors the memory of Ione E. Burden who contributed so much to both the museum and the Baton Rouge community.
Distinguished speakers will discuss leisure pursuits in 19th-century Louisiana. Topics will include horse racing, opera, theatre, New Orleans saloons and Acadian-rural entertainments.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Paul Johnson from the University of South Carolina will discuss horse racing in the South, focusing on the sport in Louisiana.
Jack Belsom, archivist of the New Orleans Opera Association, will give a history of theatre and opera in New Orleans and other communities.
Christina Vella, noted historian, author and lecturer, will consider rural entertainment such as theatre, traveling shows and show boats.
Alecia P. Long will discuss New Orleans as the Great Southern Babylon, with its notorious Storyville and saloons. She is an assistant professor of history at Georgia State University.
Barry Ancelet will focus on Acadian entertainment, including house dances, fais do-dos and charivari. Ancelet is the Granger and Debaillon/BORSF, or Board of Regents Support Fund, Professor of Francophone Studies and Folklore at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
An exhibition will feature artifacts that further tell the story of fun in urban and rural Louisiana, including balls and festivals, carnival and horse racing.
Advance registration is required. The $40 registration fee includes the lectures, a plantation lunch and a meet-the-speakers reception.
For reservations or more information, call 225-765-2437. The Rural Life Museum is located at 4650 Essen Lane, right off of I-10.