“These new research spaces are state of the art,” Morgan Kelly, associate dean for research and administration at the LSU College of Science, said. “It’s going to allow us to recruit new scientists and researchers to the state of Louisiana.”
The science building, a 148,000-square-foot facility at the corner of South Stadium Drive and Tower Drive, began welcoming researchers last month. It will fully open to students for classes at the start of the 2026-27 academic year.
LSU leaders said the new space deepens the university’s footprint in STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math, and will help address the state’s workforce needs in health care and other industries.
They also said it will bring the university closer to its goal of reaching the top 50 of research spending among U.S. higher education institutions.
“Graduates from these programs go on to promising careers in the STEM fields and earn graduate and health professional degrees all across the state of Louisiana,” LSU Chancellor Jim Dalton said in a news release. “Alongside the elite academic experience students will receive here, world-class faculty will partner together and with industry leaders in the state-of-the-art laboratories to advance scientific discovery and move the LSU flagship toward its goal of becoming a top-50 research university.”
BUILDING FEATURES
The facility includes an auditorium, research and teaching laboratories, collaborative study areas and classrooms with technology supporting the biology, chemistry, geology, math, physics and astronomy disciplines.
It also contains specialized research zones like the Ann & Billy Harrison Trace Metals Lab and the LSU Theoretical Institute, where scientists will study quantum information theory.
“This is huge growth in terms of our ability to do both teaching and research at LSU,” Kelly said.
The building was funded through $105 million from the state and $43 million from donors, including FMOL Health | Our Lady of the Lake.
“We all know that we have lots of talent in the state of Louisiana, but we also have a little bit of a talent drain going on,” FMOL Health President and CEO E.J. Kuiper said. “Part of that is because we don’t have the facilities and the technology in an educational environment, and that’s why we felt it was so important to be part of this state-of-the-art facility.”
The building was designed by EskewDumezRipple, a New Orleans -based architecture firm. In addition to academic spaces, it houses a student commons with locations of the LSU Dairy Store, PJ’s Coffee and Shaq’s Big Chicken, as well as the Applewhite Bozeman Dean’s Garden, which features a waterfall drawn from rainwater and condensation from the building’s air conditioning system.
“The building is beautiful,” biological sciences graduate student Joshua Gill said.
Gill, who was studying the effect of intermittent fasting on worms during a building tour Friday, said he moved his research to the new space in March.
He said the open concept layout and windows throughout the building facilitate working with other researchers.
“We can easily collaborate with one another and discuss ideas in this environment,” Gill said.
© 2026 The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
