At the podium: Chris Leinberger, a leading expert on metro land use strategies, will be a featured at the Louisiana Smart Growth Summit that will take place in Baton Rouge on Nov. 3-4 at the Manship Theatre downtown. The Center for Planning Excellence, which annually presents the forum on a wide range of planning-related topics, says more featured speakers will be announced as the event nears. Leinberger, who has previously presented at the summit, is president of LOCUS, a national coalition of real estate developers and investors who advocate for sustainable, walkable urban development. He’s also chair of the Center for Real Estate and Urban Analysis at George Washington University and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, focusing on research and practice to help transform traditional and suburban downtowns. Brookings has a full bio. Registration is open for the Smart Growth Summit, with full details available online.
Sewing seeds: Managers from the Philippines’ Department of Agriculture are wrapping up a three-day trip to Louisiana today, during which they’ve been learning about the LSU AgCenter’s rice research and outreach efforts. The AgCenter reports the group also met with officials at the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. The visitors are in charge of the Philippine government’s National Rice Program, which works to improve food security and farming practices. At the LSU AgCenter in Baton Rouge, the group is learning about rice production and economics, as well as the role the AgCenter and state departments play. The visitors on Tuesday attended the Acadia Parish Rice Field Day, and also toured local farms and rice mills. The LSU AgCenter has the full story.
Out of this world: Over the next three years, Louisiana will receive $2.5 million from NASA, plus an investment of about $1.9 million from the Board of Regents Support Fund, to support space-related research development and higher education programs in the state, LSU has announced. LaSPACE, the office which manages NASA Space Grant and NASA Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research programs, has been awarded three multiyear awards from NASA. The principal investigator for Space Grant and NASA EPSCoR projects is T. Gregory Guzik, LaSPACE director and LSU professor of physics and astronomy. Financial and management support is provided by the Sponsored Programs Office of the Louisiana Board of Regents. “These three awards demonstrate that NASA recognizes the importance of Louisiana’s aerospace R&D and workforce development,” Guzik says in a prepared release. LSU has the full story.
