Make it rain: Six LSU faculty members have been honored by the LSU Office of Research & Economic Development for balancing their work in the classroom with their impact beyond academia. This year’s recipients of the Rainmakers Awards for Research and Creative Activity are: Benjamin Kahan in the Department of English; Kermit Murray, Donghui Zhang and Rendy Kartika, in the Department of Chemistry; Lance Porter, in mass communication; and Femi Euba, in the College of Music & Dramatic Arts. LSU says the six faculty members have established track records in securing external funding for research and publishing their work in high-impact journals. LSU has more details.
Looking ahead: Only 41% of American workers have even tried to figure out how much they need in savings to retire comfortably, Bloomberg reports. Of those who have, 37% say they expect to need $1 million or more, according to the latest Employee Benefit Research Institute’s Retirement Confidence Survey. That’s up from 19% who said they’d need that much only a decade ago. EBRI doesn’t have data on how many people actually wind up retiring with a nest egg of $1 million or more, but it does have a database of 401(k) plans that covers roughly half the market. The database shows that 10% of plan participants have at least $200,000 stashed away—a very small minority of American workers. Read the full story.
Jumping in: ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron are jumping into American shale with gusto, planning to spend a combined $10 billion this year—up from next to nothing only a few years ago, Bloomberg reports. “The arrival of Big Oil is very significant for shale,” says Deborah Byers, U.S. energy leader at consultant Ernst & Young in Houston. “It marries a great geological resource with a very strong balance sheet.” The big three have all hatched ambitious catch-up strategies. Shell plans to spend about $2.5 billion a year, or about one-tenth of its total spending—a bet that’s bigger than those of some pure-play shale companies such as Hamm’s Continental Resources Inc. Read the full story.
