As of 2016, the pages of academic journals and outdated laboratories won’t be the only homes to University faculty research, thanks to a newly proposed LSU System initiative nicknamed “Research Works.”
University publications and social media accounts will join the traditional research media in an effort to share with the general public — not just subject matter experts and scholars — the socioeconomic benefits of faculty-driven research.
LSU President F. King Alexander said one of the primary challenges higher education in Louisiana faces, in addition to budget cuts, is educating people about the value and daily impact of research, which is partly why each of the system’s campuses have adopted the initiative.
Not to mention, roughly 75 percent of Louisiana’s research dollars flow through the LSU System, Alexander said.
“Research Works is about defining what our problems are as a state and what we are doing in our various institutions to address those problems or to improve the state’s abilities to address those problems,” Alexander said. “It’s in education, health, technology, tech transfers, agriculture — basically all of the above.”
Ongoing research at the flagship campus, he said, is exploring how drones can benefit agricultural farming. Researchers are also using the Baton Rouge Area Violence Elimination program — founded in 2012 — to more accurately predict municipal areas with the highest rates of crime.
Concussion research in athletic sports is another component of research on the agenda, Alexander said, putting the University in a unique position as it employs students as “living laboratories.”
Pennington Biomedical Research Center will also actively participate in meeting these research goals, doing so through studies of conditions such as obesity and Alzheimer’s disease, among others.
“It’s the economic impact of generating this kind of research for the state, but also, it’s the knowledge-based impact of what happens,” Alexander said.
The central research involved in the initiative will be faculty-driven. However, Alexander said some of the research ideas could be student-led at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Biology senior Grant Blanchard said research is what makes the University attractive to faculty members and students because it’s something that affects everyone. She said it’s also what will allow the University to remain competitive amid the threats from budget cuts.
Ashley Arceneaux, LSU Director of Policy Communications, said maturation level is a critical component of the research the University will target.
“We are trying to show the mid-to-end point of new research, where it’s out and available and affecting the public or the populous,” Arceneaux said. “Students, I think, will be included [in the research], but it’s just by the nature of the age of the research they’re probably not in just yet.”

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Tiger Stadium and the PMAC sit behind the Memorial Tower and the rest of campus.