A Note from Provost Haggerty

January 30, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

The year 2023 has gotten off to a great start with the announcement of the first round of seed funding for faculty scholarship from the Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research. In total, a record-breaking $1.1 million dollars, the largest investment in seed funding for faculty research in LSU history, was awarded to faculty in eight colleges and schools to fund 33 different projects. The awards are intended to better position LSU faculty for competitive external funding and recognition in areas that benefit LSU and Louisiana. The funded projects range in topics from body-tracking wearable technology that will monitor infant health, to improving delta and hurricane resiliency, to subsurface hydrogen storage, to planning and proposing a NASA mission to Mars, to supporting LSU faculty in the humanities and arts through a Second Book Institute that facilitates the advancement and promotion of associate professors in book-centered disciplines.  My experience with support for scholarship and creative activity convinces me that this investment will result in a tremendous return to LSU, its students, and Louisiana.

Additional support for scholarship will come in paying all of our doctoral and Master of Fine Arts students at least $2,556 per month, the highest minimum stipend in the SEC. With this commitment, we will be able to recruit more of the world’s best graduate students.

We have much more to do to advance LSU’s research, scholarship and creative activity and I will continue to update you on our efforts. My top priorities also include a focus on improvement in faculty and staff pay, and improvements to our infrastructure. University leadership is working hard on these, and I am optimistic that we will be able to take important steps in the coming months.

Thank you for all you do to advance LSU for Louisiana.

Roy Haggerty
Executive Vice President & Provost