SLS 16RS-1241 ORIGINAL
2016 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 50
BY SENATOR LAFLEUR
COMMENDATIONS. Commends Louisiana State University Boyd Professor Isiah Warner
as the 2016 Southeastern Conference Professor of the Year among all faculty at its fourteen
member universities.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To commend Louisiana State University Boyd Professor of Chemistry, Dr. Isiah Warner,
3 upon his designation as the Southeastern Conference Professor of the Year, having
4 been chosen from its fourteen member universities.
5 WHEREAS, the Southeastern Conference Faculty Achievement Award requires each
6 nominee considered to be a teacher or scholar at one of the member universities and to be
7 a full professor who has a record of extraordinary teaching and a nationally or internationally
8 record of scholarship; and
9 WHEREAS, Isiah Warner is a native of Bunkie, Louisiana, and a graduate of Carver
10 High School there, attended Southern University in Baton Rouge and earned his doctorate
11 in chemistry at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington; and
12 WHEREAS, in 1997 Boyd Professor Warner received the Presidential Award for
13 Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering from President Bill Clinton; and
14 WHEREAS, a prolific author, Boyd Professor Warner has published more than three
15 hundred refereed articles in various journals dealing with the general areas of analytical and
16 materials chemistry; and
17 WHEREAS, Dr. Warner has focused his research in the area of fluorescence for
18 thirty-five years and he is considered one of the world's experts in the analytical applications
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SLS 16RS-1241 ORIGINAL
1 of fluorescence; and
2 WHEREAS, apart from his scholarship, Boyd Professor Warner is widely recognized
3 for his mentoring efforts, bringing more minorities and women into science fields at
4 Louisiana State University; and
5 WHEREAS, many of Dr. Warner's mentored students have gone on to pursue
6 postdoctoral studies at such prestigious institutions as the Massachusetts Institute of
7 Technology, Harvard University, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of
8 Michigan and his alma mater, the University of Washington; and
9 WHEREAS, the Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors has awarded
10 Professor Warner its top faculty designation, Boyd Professor, for his contributions to the
11 field of chemistry and his success in improving minority participation in the sciences; and
12 WHEREAS, Boyd Professor Warner is one of only three academicians to maintain
13 the designation as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor each of the past three years
14 of the selection process; and
15 WHEREAS, in 2000, Dr. Warner was named Professor of the Year by the Carnegie
16 Foundation for the advancement of teaching, using the CASE method in teaching
17 undergraduate students; and
18 WHEREAS, Boyd Professor Warner is vice president for strategic initiatives at
19 Louisiana State University, in addition to his teaching and scholarship duties; and
20 WHEREAS, Dr. Warner and his colleagues have all taken particular interest in their
21 undergraduate students, and these efforts have been extremely successful with the graduation
22 rate for these mentored students who are seeking a degree in the STEM areas of studies,
23 twice that of Louisiana State University students as a whole; and
24 WHEREAS, Boyd Professor Warner's efforts in mentoring minority and women
25 students have resulted in Louisiana State University ranking number one nationally in the
26 production of PhD's in chemistry for African-American students and number one nationally
27 in the percentage of PhD graduates in chemistry who are women; and
28 WHEREAS, this Louisiana State University Boyd Professor of Chemistry has clearly
29 forged an exemplary career academically and has been a national leader in the mentoring of
30 African-American and women students in the sciences, both admirable results which have
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SLS 16RS-1241 ORIGINAL
1 caused him to be extraordinarily deserving of this Southeastern Conference Professor of the
2 Year Award.
3 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
4 does hereby commend Louisiana State University Boyd Professor of Chemistry, Dr. Isiah
5 Warner, upon his designation as the Southeastern Conference Professor of the Year, having
6 been chosen from its fourteen member universities.
7 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to Boyd
8 Professor of Chemistry, Isiah Warner.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Mary Dozier O'Brien.
DIGEST
SR 50 Original 2016 Regular Session LaFleur
Commends Boyd Professor Isiah Warner upon his designation as SEC Professor of the Year.
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