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