Greetings from the Chair:

Welcome to the LSU Chemical Engineering Department web site. This web site should serve as a resource for current and prospective students, alumni, faculty, and members of the science and engineering community.

A new facility for our department is on the Capital Outlay and the department is on a fund-raising campaign. Some of you might have already received letters from the College of Engineering regarding our building campaign. I encourage you to participate in this active fund-raising campaign and help us move forward.

These are exciting times in our department. We added two new faculty (Professor Judy Wornat and Associate Professor Jerry Spivey) in 2003 and we added two more faculty in 2005. Cain Chair Professor Jose Romagnoli, from the University of Sydney, joined us in Fall 2005 as did Assistant Professor James Henry, from Texas A&M University. In August 2006, we welcomed Associate Professor John Flake. In Fall 2007, we will have two more new Assistant Professors (Michael Benton from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Francisco Hung form North Carolina State University) joining the faculty. We will also be recruiting additional Assistant Professor over the next few years.

A major renovation of our teaching and research laboratories has just been completed. Our graduate program is the best-rated program in the entire University and is growing. Our undergraduate curriculum is undergoing restructuring to meet the changing requirements of the industrial and academic employers of our graduates.

In order to obtain the full story about these changes, to learn about the research conducted by our faculty, to get information about our graduate and undergraduate degree programs, to catch up on the latest news and to find out about lectures and events hosted by our department, we invite you to explore our web site. As always, please feel free to contact us or visit our beautiful campus in picturesque Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Kalliat T Valsaraj
Department Chair and
Charles and Hilda Roddy Distinguished Professor in Chemical Engineering