Feature Story
LSU Researcher Discovers Great Things

With funding from the National Science Foundation, a team of archaeologists from LSU and the University of Texas at Tyler have excavated the earliest known ancient Maya salt works in southern Belize, as reported in the journal Antiquity. The team was led by LSU Alumni Professor Heather McKillop, who first discovered wooden buildings preserved there below the sea floor, along with associated artifacts, and the only ancient Maya wooden canoe paddle in 2004. Her key collaborator, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Sills at the University of Texas at Tyler, began working with McKillop as a master's student and then as a doctoral student at LSU.

LSU has been unanimously invited to join the prestigious Association of Military Colleges and Schools of the United States, or AMCSUS. The invitation was issued because of the university's long-standing military tradition, active ROTC programs, and its current efforts to support the U.S. military through cybersecurity research and education.

LSU marked the final day of President William F. Tate IV’s statewide bus tour by announcing the vision for a new $107 million Construction & Advanced Manufacturing Building and a $15 million leadership gift from Art Favre, founder of Performance Contractors and a graduate of the first LSU construction management class in 1972.

LSU students and alumni have created a new, AI-powered tool called FarmSmart that allows farmers and gardeners to quickly access actionable intelligence on how to best manage their crops and get rid of weeds.

Special Guests include Congresswoman Julia Letlow and Rising Country Artist and LSU Student, Timothy Wayne

Stanley Wilder, the Kathleen and Joel Ory Dean of LSU Libraries, has been elected to serve on the board of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) from 2025-2027.