News By Date
Coastal Environmental Science Gets Up Close and Personal
Exciting new field, method, and study abroad courses in the LSU College of the Coast & Environment (CC&E) are providing students with critical hands-on training for their future careers. Tracy Quirk, assistant professor (and soon-to-be associate professor) in the LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences, is leading the charge in creating immersive experiences that generate enthusiasm among students while also training them to meet future workforce needs.
LSU Graduate Student Kerrin Toner Awarded Prestigious Coastal Management Fellowship
Kerrin Toner, a master’s student in the College of the Coast and Environment at Louisiana State University (LSU), has been selected as a 2020-2022 Coastal Management Fellow. She will work as part of the US Virgin Islands Coastal Zone Management Program for two years as she helps them update the St. Thomas East End Reserves Management Plan to recover and improve coastal resilience.
LSU Professor Leads Citizen Scientists to Map COVID-19 Medical Trash around the World, One Neighborhood at a Time
On LSU Professor Mark Benfield’s frequent walks around his neighborhood, one thing has become increasingly clear – the amount of disposable synthetic rubber gloves littering the street. Benfield decided to launch a global research project to map the amount and types of this new class of trash. He calls it waste PPE, or personal protective equipment, which includes disposable masks, gloves and disinfecting wipes, used prevalently since the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, he’s received nearly 2,000 images of this type of trash from citizen scientists and colleagues participating in this project from their neighborhoods around the world. Benfield is a professor in the LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences in the College of the Coast & Environment.
How the Coronavirus Has Changed Air Quality and What It Could Mean for the Weather
The change in air pollution in China from January to February as stay-at-home orders were put into place to stop the spread of the coronavirus has intrigued LSU meteorologist Paul Miller. “There have been numerous news articles about the reduction of pollution in China, how clear the water is in Venice and the better air quality in L.A.,” said Miller, who is an assistant professor in the LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences in the College of the Coast & Environment.
CC&E Professor Emeritus John Day Earns National Wetlands Award
This April, John W. Day, Jr., Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences, received the National Wetlands Award for his scientific research from Environmental Law Institute (ELI). This award recognizes scientists who have demonstrated exceptional effort, innovation, and excellence in wetlands conservation and who are dedicated to educating students and stakeholders about the value of wetlands.
CC&E's Slawomir Lomnicki Awarded Fulbright Scholarship
This April, Slawomir Lomnicki, assistant professor (and soon-to-be associate professor) in the LSU Department of Environmental Sciences, was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Lectureship in Energy, Environment and Sustainability at the Università degli Studi di Napoli "Parthenope." The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship program is the world's largest and most diverse international educational exchange and is devoted to increasing mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. He is one of four Fulbright-awarded LSU employees this year, alongside Prosanta Chakrabarty in the College of Science, Cristina Sabliov in the College of Engineering, and Loveness Schafer in LSU International Programs.
LSU Online Master's in Environmental Sciences Ranks #9 Nationwide
The LSU College of the Coast & Environment"s online Master of Science in Environmental Sciences utilizes multidisciplinary scientific approaches to comprehend complex interactions between natural and social systems. The ENVS body of researchers and instructors are experts in a wide variety of soil, social, aquatic, plant, and atmospheric sciences. This online program ranks #9 nationwide, according to College Consensus.
Frontline Safety: LSU Group Creates Mobile Decontamination Unit for Hospitals to Decontaminate Masks
A group of LSU innovators worked together to develop a solution to a critical challenge facing health care providers in the COVID-19 crisis: how to increase the usability of their limited personal protective equipment, or PPE. To solve that problem, the LSU team developed an ultraviolet light-powered mobile decontamination unit, or MDU, from a food warmer.
A Message from Dean D'Elia
An update on the state of CC&E and it's changes as result of the coronavirus pandemic.
MEDIA ADVISORY: LSU College of the Coast & Environment Experts Available to Discuss 10th Anniversary of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Experts from the LSU College of the Coast & Environment are available to provide context and analysis 10 years after one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history: the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
New Research Reveals Strongest Predictors of Menhaden Growth in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic
New research suggests that large-scale environmental factors influence the size of one of the ocean's most abundant forage species. Recently, scientists from LSU, NOAA, the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science evaluated large-scale ecosystem dynamics influencing growth of menhaden in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. They found that anthropogenic influences affected menhaden in the Atlantic more than in the Gulf, where environmental factors were the more dominant predictors of growth.
LSU EnvironMentors Alumna Gives Back
LSU Admissions Counselor Alexis Johnson is a former LSU EnvironMentors student who credits the program with helping her to realize her college dreams. Therefore, every year since she graduated from LSU, she returns to EnvironMentors to discuss the college admissions process and help others like herself plan for their futures.
Chair of LSU's Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences Elected AAAS Member-at-Large
The American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, elected Kam-biu Liu, professor and chair of LSU's Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, member-at-large of the Section on Geology & Geography. This February, Liu began serving his four-year term as a member of their section Steering Group.
New Research Reveals How Hurricanes Shape the Coastal Landscape in the Everglades
In a recent paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS, researchers from different universities, including LSU, examined how Hurricanes Wilma (2015) and Irma (2017) fertilized the Florida Coastal Everglades, paradoxically facilitating mangrove wetlands recovery. Contributors with LSU ties include Florida International University research assistant professor and LSU alumnus Edward Castañeda-Moya who, along with Rivera-Monroy, designed the research; Rivera-Monroy's graduate assistant Xiachen Zhao who helped them to perform the research and analyze data; and LSU assistant professor in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences Matt Hiatt, who helped model the data.
LSU Partners on New Taskforce to Improve Information about Harmful Algal Blooms
LSU's College of the Coast & Environment, or CC&E, LSU's College of Science, and the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation have created the Harmful Algal Bloom, or HAB, Taskforce, to share the latest research on harmful algal blooms in Lake Pontchartrain and other Louisiana ecosystems and to prepare stakeholders for future HAB occurrences. Harmful algal blooms can severely affect human health and aquatic ecosystems and can create or exacerbate low oxygen zones, or dead zones, such as the Gulf of Mexico dead zone.
Rachel Lau Earns 2019 LSU Foundation Staff Outstanding Service Award
Congratulations to Rachel Lau, one of 13 LSU staff members to earn the 2019 LSU Foundation Staff Outstanding Service Award! The 51st annual award ceremony was held on January 21 in the Lod Cook Alumni Center. Lau's exceptional service elevates the College of the Coast & Environment's profile as a global leader in cutting-edge research and education.
Purple, GREEN, and Gold: One LSU Alum's Pursuit of an Eco-Friendly Mardi Gras
LSU College of the Coast & Environment alumnus Kevin Fitzwilliam is relentless in the pursuit of a "greener" Mardi Gras. While Fat Tuesday has always been associated with excess--and excess trash--this environmental sciences graduate has built a business around eliminating plastic waste from this time-honored celebration and lifting Ugandan women out of poverty in the process.
Three Coastal Environmental Science Undergraduates Receive Spring 2020 LSU Discover Grants
On January 17, LSU Discover Undergraduate Research Program announced their Spring 2020 Research Grant recipients. This grant awards undergraduates at LSU with a minimum 3.0 GPA. Three of the 15 winners are undergraduates from LSU's College of the Coast & Environment: Kendall Brome, Denise Poveda, and Callie Snow.
Gallery: LSU College of the Coast & Environment December 2019 Graduation
The College of the Coast & Environment's world-renowned faculty emphasize highly interactive classes because we recognize that, in our field, adaptability is paramount. We offer five concentrations for undergraduates, three fast-track options, and five advanced degrees so that our graduates are well prepared to tackle a rapidly changing physical environment that is reshaping and expanding the coastal and environmental workforce. Our alumni have gone on to become attorneys, oceanographers, climatologists, public health officials, ecologists, disaster responders, scientists, doctors, veterinarians, and more with our rigorous degrees.
LSU Professor: UN Climate Change Conference Report Foretells Oxygen Loss in the World's Oceans
Oxygen loss in the world's oceans, driven by climate change and nutrient pollution, is increasingly threatening fish species and disrupting ecosystems, according to a new report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, released in December 2019 at the UN Climate Change conference in Madrid. LSU expert Nancy Rabalais, a professor in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences, contributed to sections of the report concerning nutrient pollution. She has 34 years of experience studying deoxygenation in the Gulf of Mexico with Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, and three years ago she also joined LSU's College of the Coast & Environment.