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Noteworthy Mark Batzer, a Boyd Professor and the Dr. Mary Lou Applewhite Distinguished Professor of biological sciencs, was among thirty-eight academic inventors named to the National Academy of Inventors. Batzer, along with former graduate student Dale Hedges and current staff scientist Jerilyn Walker, holds multiple patents in forensic DNA analyses that have been commercialized. In addition, he and his research group have published more than 290 original research articles, including many with undergraduate, graduate student, and postdoctoral coauthors.
Mark Batzer
Nichole Bauer
Kevin Benham
Stephania Cormier
Willis Delony
Zhiqiang Deng
Tammy Dugas
Nichole Bauer, assistant professor of political communication, Manship School of Mass Communication and Department of Political Science, was awarded more than $100,000 in a three-year grant by the Louisiana Board of Regents to support her research examining citizens’ responses to female-dominated political institutions and political leadership. The grant will fund her project entitled “Feminizing Political Institutions: Does Increasing the Number of Women in Politics Change How Citizens Stereotype Political Institutions?” Kevin Benham, the Jon Emerson/Wayne Womack Design Professor and assistant professor of landscape architecture, was awarded a Rome Prize 2020-2021 fellowship to advance his research on transhumance. The fellowships, presented by the American Academy in Rome, support advanced independent work and research in the arts and humanities. This year, fellowships were awarded to twenty-two American and two Italian artists and scholars. Stephania Cormier, the Werner Chair Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Rebecca Christofferson, assistant professor of pathobiological sciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine, developed a saliva-based test to help track COVID-19 in K-12 school children and teachers in Baton Rouge. The initiative received mention during congressional hearings when Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services Admiral Brett Giroir testified that such programs are part of the robust surveillance system needed to track COVID-19. Willis Delony, a Boyd Professor and the Virginia Martin Howard Professor of Piano & Jazz Studies, was named LSU’s honoree for the 2020 Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award. Delony is one of the nation’s leading classical and jazz crossover artists, with a performance career spanning more than four decades. The individuals selected for the Faculty Achievement Award represent the best academics throughout the SEC and become his or her university's nominee for the SEC Professor of the Year Award. Zhiqiang Deng, professor of civil and environmental engineering, was awarded a $750,000 award from NASA and a $750,000 matching grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents for his project Satellite-Assisted Forecasting Environment for Improving Oyster Safety (SAFE Oyster). It was selected for the federal award by the NASA Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Program Office. Deng proposes using innovative NASA satellite-based information products to enhance the forecasting of norovirus and vibrio risks of oysters harvested along Louisiana and other Gulf Coast areas. Tammy Dugas, professor of comparative biomedical sciences at the School of Veterinary Medicine, was named head of the department's biomedical research program and advanced degrees. Dugas joined the faculty in 2014.
28 LSU Alumni Magazine | Fall/Winter 2020
