Current faculty and student research projects at LSU have the following long-term research goals:

Early Earth studies through detailed field, geochronological and petrologic investigations of the Archean rocks of South Africa and the Wyoming Province, North America (Byerly, Henry) Effects of large meteorite impacts in the geological record (Byerly) Tectonic models based on metamorphic petrologic investigations of  deep-to-shallow crustal rocks (Henry) Modeling of realistic constraints on the chemical and mechanical interactions within metamorphic terrains through combinations of field, analytical, experimental and theoretical approaches (Dutrow) Utilization of flood basalt and komatiite geochemistry and geochronology as a window into the mantle (Baksi)

Establishment of robust mineral chemical and cathodoluminescent characteristics that provide insights into the thermal and baric history of metamorphic rocks and the provenance of clastic sedimentary rocks (Henry, Dutrow) Mössbauer spectroscopy of Mars-analog materials and analysis of such spectroscopy from ongoing spacecraft missions (Schaefer) Utilization of flood basalt and komatiite geochemistry and geochronology as a window into the mantle (Baksi) Application of clay mineralogy and stable isotopes to diagenesis and fluid flow in sedimentary rocks (Ferrell) Employment of synchrotron source tomographic techniques to investigate the porosity and permeability structure of fine-grained sedimentary rocks (Nunn)

• Ajoy Baksi
  E-mail: abaksi@lsu.edu
• Huiming Bao
  E-mail: bao@lsu.edu
  
• Gary Byerly
  E-mail: glbyer@lsu.edu
• Barb Dutrow
  E-mail: dutrow@lsu.edu
• Ray Ferrell
  E-mail: rferrell@lsu.edu
• Jeffrey S. Hanor
  E-mail: hanor@lsu.edu
• Darrell Henry
  E-mail: glhenr@lsu.edu
• Jeffrey Nunn
  E-mail: gljeff@lsu.edu
• Martha Schaefer
  E-mail: mws@lsu.edu