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December 12, 2017

 Christmas Tree Lighting

Dear LSU Family,

As we enter the holiday season, we are often encouraged to count our blessings. The good things in life are usually difficult to quantify, but for me, those numbers come easily:

  • 5,000 faculty and staff
  • +26,000 students at Louisiana's flagship university
  • 250,000 alumni around the world

In the last few months, we've seen nearly $10 million in transformative donations, received a Nobel Prize for our research on gravitational waves, helped land one of the biggest business deals in Louisiana history, and celebrated the highest-ever graduation rate for student athletes. The LSU community has never been stronger, and we're looking to wrap up 2017 with even more positive news.

Thanks for playing a starring role in our university's continued success. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,

 sig

F. King Alexander
LSU President


memorial tower

LSU Receives $5 Million to Support Entrepreneurship

Business is booming in Louisiana, and LSU aims to keep it that way. The Charles Koch Foundation recently provided $5.6 million to support the Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute (SEI), an interdisciplinary institute fostering entrepreneurship through educational initiatives, applied research and outreach. This compliments the newly developed bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship, which will allow students to pair their passion with the pursuit of their own business in creative and innovative ways.

In addition to these new developments, LSU’s Innovation Park and LBTC business incubator alone are responsible for the development of nearly 600 businesses and 10,000 jobs.

cadet

U.S. Army Names LSU Senior #1 Reserve Cadet in Nation

Each year, the Cadet Command ranks its ROTC seniors, with the top 20 percent earning the designation of Distinguished Military Graduate. This year there were 1,102 DMGs out of the 5,536 seniors on the order-of-merit list. LSU construction management senior Michael Orgeron was named top cadet in the nation, over students from University of Georgia, the Citadel, and Michigan State, among others, demonstrating the excellence in leadership we’ve come to expect from our students.

golden

LSU Computer Science Professor Scores +$1 Million Grant from National Science Foundation

LSU Computer Science Professor Golden Richard III studies memory forensics, which aids in the investigation of data breaches, and was recognized with a $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Secure & Trustworthy Cyberspace program to help our nation become more advanced and innovative in our approach to these increasing attacks.

innovation park

LSU's LBTC Celebrates 29 Years of Leading Louisiana's Entrepreneur Industry

The Louisiana Business Technology Center, or LBTC, at LSU Innovation Park celebrated its 29th anniversary on Thursday, Nov. 9, to recap the year and honor its top clients, innovators and student workers. Established in 1988, the LBTC documented the creation of nearly 10,000 Louisiana jobs and assisted client companies in raising more than $169 million in equity and investments.

Law Center

LSU Law Recognized Among Nation's Best Values

LSU's Paul M. Hebert Law Center was recognized among the Top 25 Best Value Law Schools by National Jurist Magazine.

This ranking reflects the Center's ability to produce graduates who pass the bar at high rates, carry little to no debt, and secure jobs within their field shortly after graduation.  

space

LSU Team Assists First-Ever Measurement of High-Energy Electrons in Space

The CALET Cosmic Ray Experiment recently successfully made the first direct measurements of extremely high energy electrons in space. 

LSU Professor Emeritus of Physics & Astronomy John Wefel serves as the spokesperson for the U.S.-portion of the international CALET team, which includes LSU (lead U.S. institution), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Washington University, and the University of Denver. Other LSU researchers working with the project are Ph.D. student Nick Cannady, research associates Doug Granger and Amir Javaid, former LSU undergraduate Anthony Ficklin, and professors of physics and astronomy Greg Guzik and Mike Cherry.

The goal of the project is to to demonstrate definitively the presence of nearby astrophysical cosmic ray sources and/or to reveal the nature of dark matter.

This adds to LSU's extraordinary and ever-growing list of discoveries in astrophysics, including the Nobel Prize-winning measurement of gravitational waves last year.


Did You Know?

  • LSU provides $17 million in need-based scholarships to Louisiana students through our Pelican Promise program each year.
  • We just “earned our ears” -- LSU was recently recognized as a distinguished Disney College Program institution, with more than 25 students a year gaining admission to the competitive internship.  
  • The Golden Band from Tiger Land’s tribute to our veterans went viral, watched by more than 4.4 million viewers in the first two days of being online.
  • Have you heard of Indie Plate, the meal-delivery service that features prepped meal kits? It was started by two LSU alums, Ben Bartage and Peru Sharma, in 2013.

In the News

A Sample of LSU Stories from Around the World