Strategic Plan  


 

The Cain Department of Chemical Engineering at LSU is a recognized leader in chemical engineering education, and is one of the oldest and most productive departments in the nation. The department continues to be prolific in providing the highly trained graduates needed in the chemical and petrochemical production facilities located in the Gulf Coast area. It has a strong reputation due to its proximity and firm ties to one of the world's largest concentrations of chemical, plastics, paper, and refining industries—as well as a long history of graduates assuming leadership positions in these industries and allied fields. As an essential component of LSU Strategic Plan 2025 and the College of Engineering's Strategic Plan, the department contributes to the improvement of the university’s reputation by striving to enhance and further strengthen its status as a rising center for research. With this in mind, the department drafted the following strategic planning document.

Mission

The mission of the Cain Department of Chemical Engineering is to provide high quality chemical engineering education and to advance science and engineering through cutting-edge research.

Vision

Our vision is to be recognized as a top-tier department for chemical engineering education and innovative research that broadly impacts science, engineering, industry, and society.

Values

  1. High quality undergraduate education, leading to highly-trained, capable engineers entering the workforce
  2. Progressive and in-depth graduate education and research, leading to positions in academia, government, and industry
  3. Cutting-edge research that positively impacts and improves society

Goals

1. Improve the quality of the undergraduate program.

Strategies

      • Retain and recruit faculty with a target student to faculty ratio of 20:1
      • Recruit high quality undergraduates

Performance Indicators

      • Number of FTE Faculty
      • Student to faculty ratio
      • Undergraduate student retention and recruiting trends

2. Improve the quality of the graduate program.

Strategies

      • Increase the number of graduate student applications by 10% by 2025
      • Increase graduate student productivity
      • Increase and retain research active tenure/tenure track faculty
      • Investigate new graduate programs with greater appeal

Performance Indicators

      • Number of enrolled graduate students
      • Number of graduate student applications and application trends
      • Graduate student publication and presentation trends
      • Number of research active tenure/tenure track faculty

3. Increase the department's research productivity.

Strategies

      • Increase the number of proposals submitted
      • Increase the number of peer reviewed publications and citations
      • Increase the number of enrolled graduate students
      • Increase the number of research active tenure/tenure track faculty

Performance Indicators

      • Number of proposals submitted/awarded
      • Number of publications and citations
      • Research funding per tenure/tenure track faculty