| | | | | | Barns adjacent to the LSU AgCenter's Livestock Exhibition Hall on campus have been torn down to make way for the Louisiana Emerging Technology Center. (Photo by Mark Claesgens) |
| | | This is an artist rendering of the Louisiana Emerging Technology Center -- a three-story, 60,000-square-foot building scheduled to be completed in 2005 for an approximate cost of $12 million. |
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Boethel named new research director
David J. Boethel, former associate vice chancellor at the LSU AgCenter, became vice chancellor for research and director of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station effective April 19.
“He brings a strong research background to this job plus classroom teaching experience and a record of leadership in our extension and outreach program,” said William B. “Bill” Richardson, LSU AgCenter chancellor.
Boethel, who has been with the AgCenter for nearly 30 years, had been associate vice chancellor since 2001. He was promoted to assistant director in 1997 and has continued his appointment as a professor of entomology.
Boethel has received international recognition for this research on insect pest management. More recently, he has led efforts to stop the spread of the Formosan subterranean termite and red imported fire ant in Louisiana and expand mosquito abatement to help tackle the threat of West Nile virus.
He replaces William H. Brown, who retired effective April 16 after three years as vice chancellor and more than 28 years at LSU. Brown came to LSU in 1976 to head what is now the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. He has risen through the ranks from assistant director for grants and contracts, to associate director, associate vice chancellor and, finally, vice chancellor in 2001.
A native of Weimar, Texas, Boethel received his bachelor of science and master of science degrees from Texas A&M University in College Station. He was awarded the Ph.D. in entomology from Oklahoma State University in 1974.
Before moving to the Baton Rouge campus in 1980, Boethel was at the LSU AgCenter’s Pecan Research Station in Shreveport.
David Morrison, former LSU AgCenter assistant vice chancellor, has been promoted to associate vice chancellor and associate director of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station also effective April 19. Linda Foster Benedict
LSU AgCenter establishes natural resource policy center
The Board of Regents and the LSU Board of Supervisors recently approved the establishment of the Center for Natural Resource Economics and Policy at the LSU AgCenter. Rex Caffey, a wetlands and coastal resources economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, has been named director.
“The center will be beneficial to the state and the nation because it will bring natural resource economists from many agencies together,” said Gail Cramer, department head. “They will provide policy makers with economic analyses that should be beneficial to decision-making about resource use in Louisiana.”
He said some areas of work could include water use, wetland valuation, farm programs and conservation programs.
“These are issues that could and should be addressed,” Cramer said.
Caffey said economists look at the allocation of scarce resources among competing user groups, as well as location and ownership issues, such as property rights and market and nonmarket valuations.
He said a survey of more than 200 academic departments, centers and institutes in Louisiana colleges and universities showed none focus on policy, management and economics of natural resources.
Calling it a research cooperative and a center without walls, Caffey said the new center’s purpose is to contribute to the sustainability of Louisiana’s natural resources, including energy, coastal and inland wetlands, fisheries, forestry, wildlife, and soil and water.
“Louisiana is the terminus of one of the world’s largest river systems,” Caffey said.
Caffey said the center will host its first national conference, Challenges of Socio-economic Research in Coastal Systems, May 27-28 in Baton Rouge.
In addition to Caffey, other members of the center include Hamady Diop and Walter Keithly of the LSU Coastal Fisheries Institute; Jack Isaacs of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries; Michael Dunn, Steve Henning, Richard Kazmierczak, Krishna Paudel and John Westra of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness; William Olatubi of the LSU Center for Energy Studies; and Richard Vlosky of the School of Renewable Natural Resources. Rick Bogren
First sweet potato patents awarded
Two sweet potato varieties developed by the LSU AgCenter recently were awarded U.S. patents – the first ones given to sweet potatoes.
“The patents protect our varieties on behalf of the interests of our growers,” said Don La Bonte, plant breeder who developed the new varieties. “Any funds derived from royalties would contribute to the enrichment of our program.”
One of the patented varieties is Bienville, released in 2002. This variety is resistant to the southern root knot nematode.
The southern root knot nematode normally is found in lighter-textured, sandy soils in areas such as Morehouse and Bienville parishes, La Bonte said, adding that the pests have not been a problem in most sweet potato production areas of the state.
With its nematode resistance, the new variety allows growers to reduce costs by using less pesticide while maintaining product yield and quality, La Bonte said.
“Bienville fills a niche,” La Bonte said. “But Beauregard will still be the standard.”
Beauregard, developed by the LSU AgCenter and released in 1987, is considered by many to be the premier sweet potato variety in the United States.
The other variety that received a patent is named 96-117 and is mainly grown for baby food processors.
“It’s a great processing sweet potato that makes good baby food puree and is attractive as a canned sweet potato,” La Bonte said. “It’s sweet and flavorful.” Rick Bogren
Rice farmers get more weapons to fight pests
Rice farmers soon will have two more weapons in their arsenals for fighting stink bugs and rice water weevils.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently approved gamma cyhalothrin for use in field, vegetable, tree and vine crops. It will be sold as Proaxis and in a higher-concentrated form called Prolex.Farmers should be able to buy the products in early May.
“They’re additional options for what we already have,” said Boris Castro, an LSU AgCenter entomologist.
They will help replace such chemicals as Furadan and Icon, which both were used to combat rice water weevils. Furadan was removed from the market by the EPA, and Icon is no longer being made by the BASF Corp.
The new products are labeled to control adult rice water weevils, rice stink bugs, chinch bugs, grasshoppers and leafhoppers. Both are applied to the foliage of rice plants, Castro said.
LSU AgCenter entomologist Mike Stout said the newer chemicals should be used after seeing weevils in the field or after finding signs they have been feeding on rice plants. Although the AgCenter doesn’t recommend pre-emptive treatment, many farmers use that approach, he said.
“In South Louisiana, you can almost guarantee you’ll have weevils in the fields,” Stout said. Bruce Schultz
Technology center to emerge from barn site
Groundbreaking for the Louisiana Emerging Technologies Center will be sometime in June, with completion expected the following spring, said Paula Jacobi, CEO of the LSU System Research and Technology Foundation, which will oversee the center.
The center, which will be an incubator for start-up technology companies, will be built on the site of old, leaky barns that once housed the LSU AgCenter’s annual state livestock show. After nearly 70 years on the LSU campus, that show was moved in February 2004 to the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, La.
“This is what visitors will see when they enter campus from the east,” Jacobi said of the three-story building, designed in the Italian renaissance style of the LSU Master Plan. The lead designer is Dale Songy of Coleman & Partners of Baton Rouge,
The Louisiana Emerging Technologies Center will house the offices of the foundation as well the center. Jacobi said an executive director for the center should be hired within the next few months.
The center will provide offices, conference rooms, laboratory space and equipment for newly formed technology companies. The first tenant will be TransGenRx, a new company that has licensed technology from the LSU AgCenter to produce protein products in chicken eggs.
“The companies will be here temporarily until they expand and have enough money to move into larger facilities,” Jacobi said.
The LSU Master Plan calls for a reconfigured intersection at the site, which is at East Parker and West Lakeshore. A proposal under consideration is for this intersection to become a major gateway to campus. This new entry would be called the East Gate to complement the North Gate and South Gate, which are the other main approaches to campus. Linda Foster Benedict |