LSUS receives $500,000 grant from USDA 09/02/03

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded $500,000 to LSUS under its Higher Education Challenge Grant Program for a joint project, “Experiential Learning via Research in the Red River Basin.”

The competitive grant involves LSU A&M and the LSU Agricultural Center as partners with the LSUS Red River Watershed Management Institute’s research and education. Under this partnership, Baton Rouge and Ag Center faculty and students will assist LSUS with specific research and analysis, such as core analysis and crop test plots at the Red River Education and Research Park (C. Bickham Dickson Park), which is jointly managed by LSUS and the city of Shreveport.

“This project is designed to improve interdisciplinary undergraduate education and training,” said Dr. Dalton Gossett, LSUS professor of biology, one of four project directors. “Students’ experiential learning involves research projects in environmental science, agriculture, watershed management, plant physiology, ecology and related fields. Our faculty will benefit through access to new methods and advanced technology at partner institutions and collaborating on professional publications and presentations of research results.”

The other three project directors are Gary Hanson, assistant professor of environmental science and director of the Red River Watershed Management Institute, Dr. Stephen Banks and Dr. Robert Kalinsky, both professors of biological sciences.

Ongoing partnerships with LSUS also include the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Shreveport Green, Sci-Port Discovery Center, area K-12 school systems and several private corporations including Bellsouth, Halliburton, AEP SWEPCO and General Motors.

Institute personnel are actively working with statewide and national efforts addressing such issues as the hypoxia problem in the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana’s coastal restoration.

Virginia Lincove, LSUS associate vice chancellor for sponsored research, said this is the fourth grant from the USDA totaling $925,000 in the past three years to support the Red River Watershed Management Institute. Lincove points to U.S. Sen. John Breaux’s assistance as a critical factor in securing the USDA funding.