Deans Message

Dean's Welcome

As Dean of the School of the Coast and Environment (SC&E), I extend a warm greeting to all who visit this website and in particular to our prospective, returning, and former students. It is a signal honor to be on the faculty at LSU and to serve as the School of the Coast and Environment’s leader and chief advocate.

SC&E’s outstanding faculty is internationally acclaimed for its high impact contributions to research and education. The School was designated as such in 2001 and resulted from an earlier administrative consolidation of LSU’s renowned Department of Marine Science, Coastal Ecology Institute, Coastal Fisheries Institute, Coastal Studies Institute, Wetland Biogeochemistry Institute, and Institute of Environmental Studies. SC&E is housed in a beautiful, recently constructed facility with first-class laboratories and access to the state-of-the-art research-support infrastructure of one of the nation’s foremost Land, Sea, and Space Grant universities.

SC&E is proud to have been identified by LSU as a leader in its National Flagship Agenda’s strategic initiative referred to as “Big Coast and Its Communities.” That initiative addresses, among other things, climate change, wetlands, fisheries, the broader coastal environment, and sustainability of Louisiana’s communities and culture.

LSU’s location, virtually on the banks of one of the world’s great rivers, the Mississippi, affords our faculty, staff, students, and visiting researchers access to some of the most dynamic and important - yet vulnerable - coastal areas in the US. The challenges that the Gulf of Mexico region faces are critically important both to the nation’s economy and its natural resources. Accordingly, our research findings are typically highly relevant in the context of managing the coastal environment and economy on a local, regional, national, and indeed, a global basis.

SC&E is comprised of two departments, the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences (DOCS) and the Department of Environmental Sciences (ENVS). SC&E’s faculty members teach in the following degree programs: a BS in Coastal Environmental Science, an MS in Environmental Sciences, and an MS and a PhD in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences. We also offer an undergraduate minor in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences. We are committed to expanding these programs and thus encourage inquiries from prospective students.

Our times are challenging in multiple respects, not the least of which is economic. SC&E is fortunate in that it is highly competitive for research funding from multiple governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations. Our annual sponsored research programs typically exceed $10 million, with mean per capita faculty funding of over $250 thousand. In addition, the School has garnered substantial funding from the private sector, having had chairs endowed by Shell and the Clairborne Gasoline Company and six endowed professorships. SC&E is fortunate to have support from a broad spectrum of businesses and industry as well as from individuals. We need, and sincerely welcome, additional partners as well as endowment and annual contributions.

Chris D’Elia, Professor and Dean