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Alumni Spotlight: Imani Maxberry, Founder and CEO, Fort Berry Alternatives
Small business owner Imani Maxberry is putting a Coastal Environmental Science degree to use as an entrepreneur. Imani, a 2018 CES Alum, is the founder and CEO of Fort Berry Alternatives, an Atlanta-based provider of eco-friendly services. Fort Berry Alternatives offers event planning with a twist - the company advocates for local businesses and educates the community about environmental sustainability.
University-Industry Partnership Leverages LSU Library of 11,000 Microbes for Bioremediation
LSU has licensed access to a vast library of bioremediation microbes to the national environmental services firm Cameron-Cole, LLC. The library was developed by Environmental Sciences Professor Emeritus Ralph Portier over almost 40 years as he and LSU have helped private companies as well as local, state, and national government organizations mitigate a wide range of environmental hazards in the U.S. and across the globe.
Watch: CC&E Superstar April Ellis
Dean Chris D'Elia and LSU alumna April Ellis discuss her time at LSU's College of the Coast & Environment and how it shaped where she is today.
Kenneth Erickson Named Louisiana Knauss Fellow Finalist
Kenneth Erickson is a graduate student in the LSU College of the Coast & Environment's Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences, where his research on the southern flounder fishery has revealed a range-wide decline in the species. Erickson is one of three 2020 Louisiana Knauss Fellow Finalists at LSU. He hopes to continue working in fisheries management and bridge the interests of legislators, agencies and stakeholders to create sustainable coastal policy.
LSU Associate Professor Jun-Hong Liang Receives Prestigious NSF CAREER Award
Jun-Hong Liang, associate professor in the LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences, or DOCS, has received a five-year National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development, or NSF CAREER, award. This award will support his research into how ocean bubbles play an important role in upper ocean dynamics and in air-sea gas exchange and to enrich the curriculum in physical oceanography and outreach activities at LSU and in local communities.
Watch: CC&E Trailblazer Nina Lam
In this video, Dr. Nina Lam, Professor & Abraham Distinguished Professor of Louisiana Environmental Studies in the LSU Department of Environmental Sciences, discusses her trailblazing research analyzing the factors that led businesses to determine whether to reopen in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
Student Spotlight: Rekea' Williams
During the summer of 2019, LSU undergraduate junior in Coastal Environmental Science Rekea' Williams participated in a valuable internship with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center, or ERDC, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. There, she performed cutting-edge research and ultimately co-authored a peer reviewed journal publication based on the results. "Impact of aggregate mineralogy and exposure solution on alkali-silica reaction product composition and structure within accelerated test conditions" was published in the journal, Construction and Building Materials, this April.
Laws of Infinite Possibility
Edward Laws, Ph.D., a professor of environmental sciences in the LSU College of the Coast & Environment, is dedicated to seeing his students succeed. He has created scholarships to ensure financial limitations do not stand in the way of earning an education.
LSU and NOAA Continue Partnership in Emergency Chemical Hazard Response
LSU is helping the U.S. respond to hazards from environmental releases of oil and toxic chemicals. A team of seven researchers from the College of the Coast & Environment (CC&E) will be partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to provide primary emergency response to chemical hazards in support of NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration's Emergency Response Division. NOAA has awarded $6.7M to Research Planning, Inc., an environmental consulting firm that partners with the LSU team as part of the NOAA ProTech Oceans Task Order to help assess chemical hazards associated with oil and hazardous materials releases across the nation's navigable waterways.
The Delta Breathes: Mapping Carbon Along the Muddy Mississippi
Rivers and deltas can release significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming. But until recently, climate modelers have had limited information on this process. A team of LSU College of the Coast & Environment scientists, in collaboration with Southern University, have accepted the challenge of analyzing this complex carbon export in the largest delta in the United States--the Mississippi River Delta.
Five CC&E Faculty Receive 2020 University Distinguished Faculty Awards
This May, LSU has selected five exceptional faculty members from the College of the Coast & Environment (CC&E) to be recognized for their accomplishments in teaching, research, and service. In addition to finding innovative new ways of educating the coastal environmental workforce, they perform critical research all over the world and are top experts in environmental virology, physical and geological oceanography, ocean modeling, coastal wetlands, and renewable energy research.
Two LSU CC&E Professors Receive CPRA Coastal Science Assistantships
Two faculty in the LSU College of the Coast & Environment's Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences have been awarded a 2020 Coastal Science Assistantship funded by the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana (CPRA). Giulio Mariotti and Tracy Quirk received two of the four assistantships, which are awarded annually. Additionally, CRPA awarded a third LSU faculty member, Carol Wilson, in the Department of Geology & Geophysics.
Watch CC&E's Spring 2020 Virtual Convocation
A video of CC&E's Convocation
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.