LSU Research

LSU has received a $20 million Mid-scale Research Infrastructure (MRI) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build LaNeXT, a laser-driven X-ray facility that will allow researchers from all over the world to come to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to watch some of nature’s fastest processes as they happen.

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Out of more than 300 teams worldwide, LSU’s team became one of eight finalists in a four-year, $11 million global competition to end destructive wildfires. Today, the team received a $100,000 Special Recognition award at the XPRIZE Wildfire awards ceremony at the New York City Fire Museum.

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LSU College of the Coast & Environment LSU Center for Computation & Technology XPRIZE

He first came to LSU as an undergraduate in 1966. When Dr. Frank Fronczek returned in 1976, he expected to stay one year. That year became a 50-year career helping shape generations of chemistry research.

From revealing thousands of crystal structures to guiding students through their first discoveries, Dr. Fronczek has left a lasting mark on LSU and the worldwide crystallography community.

As he enters retirement, one thing is clear: he’s still bleeding Purple & Gold. 💜💛

🔗 Read his story: https://www.lsu.edu/science/chemistry/news/2026/09/fronczek.php

LSU Department of Chemistry LSU Research Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) American Crystallographic Association

Our new issue of Research Highlights welcomes you to the jungle, as we’ve discovered a new species of snake named after Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash. Also, learn about two highly competitive Genesis Mission awards, and how LSU creates the first room temperature quantum material, discovers hidden links among crop diseases, and advances wetland science across two coasts.

Read all about it at the link in comments!

LSU Museum of Natural Science LSU College of Science LSU College of Engineering LSU College of the Coast & Environment LSU AgCenter FMOL Health LSU School of Veterinary Medicine Pennington Biomedical Research Center LSU College of Humanities & Social Sciences LSU Health Shreveport LSU Center for Computation & Technology LSU School of Music Oak Ridge National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory U.S. Department of Energy University of Rhode Island National Science Foundation (NSF) National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Four LSU faculty members have been awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s most prestigious grant for early-career researchers, bringing more than $2.4 million to LSU.

The winning research projects span hurricane resilience, molecular machines, post-quantum software security, and defenses against online scams.

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Professor of Acting and Directing George Judy in the LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts received support from the Provost Fund for Innovation in Research to create a live workshop performance, “Clytemnestra Blue,” which explores pain, power-based violence, and retributive justice through ancient Greek tragedies and 1920’s Blues music, with original compositions by Brian Breen. Catch the second free performance tonight, Friday, in the college’s Studio Theatre.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Day at continues as research leaders and faculty explore complementary capabilities to accelerate promising technologies from fundamental research to regional and national impact, alongside campus tours and ORNL Director Stephen K. Streiffer providing an overview of how “ORNL and LSU’s partnership can move energy innovation from discovery to deployment.”

We’re just wrapping up today’s breakout sessions on cybersecurity and AI, high-performance computing, digital twins, advanced manufacturing, neutron characterization, nuclear and small modular reactors, and environmental modeling.

U.S. Department of Energy LSU College of Engineering LSU College of Science LSU College of the Coast & Environment Future Use of Energy in Louisiana LSU Center for Computation & Technology

LSU physicists are finding new ways to put light to work for quantum information processing.

They’ve built a multiphoton quantum reservoir, an optical system that uses the natural complexity of light to process information. Instead of relying on fragile sources of quantum light, the system starts with bright, readily available classical light and uses photon-counting measurements to access hidden multiphoton quantum behavior.
Operating at room temperature, the reservoir can access systems containing up to 40 photons, tolerate substantial noise and loss, simulate complex quantum dynamics, and even learn different mathematical functions—all within the same optical platform.

Led by Mingyuan Hong and Associate Professor Omar S. Magaña-Loaiza in LSU’s Quantum Photonics Laboratory, the work offers a more robust route toward quantum technologies built for real-world conditions, advancing research across LSU College of Science.

🔗 Read more at the link: https://www.lsu.edu/physics/news/2026/09/magana-loaiza-adv-sci.php

As freshwater becomes scarcer and salt builds up in growing regions, scientists are looking for new ways to help crops handle increasingly salty conditions.

A recent study from LSU Department of Biological Sciences published in Nature Communications analyzed more than 200,000 individual root cells and found that naturally salt-tolerant plants don’t all survive stress the same way. Different species have evolved different cellular strategies to solve the same problem.

The new cross-species single-cell atlas gives scientists a closer look at those strategies, offering new clues for developing more resilient crops.

🔗 Read more: https://www.lsu.edu/science/news/2026/08/root-atlas-nc.php

LSU Research

This Thursday, LSU welcomes Oak Ridge National Laboratory to its flagship campus for a collaborative workshop. Read ORNL Associate Director Robert Wagner’s conversation with LSU’s John Flake on some of the research topics they plan to work on together—and where the national need, the lab’s focus, LSU, and Louisiana line up.

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U.S. Department of Energy