LSU Discover Day 2025

Pursuing Careers in Research Panel

3:30 - 4:30 pm | LSU Student Union | Capital Chamber, room 329

Panelists:

Headshot of panelist Owen CarmichaelDr. Owen Carmichael
Professor and Director of Biomedical Imaging, Pennington Biomedical Research Center

Owen Carmichael is Professor and Director of Biomedical Imaging at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As Director of Biomedical Imaging, he oversees MRI, DXA, and ultrasound data collection and analysis at Pennington Biomedical. His laboratory works to develop new biomedical imaging techniques that can be applied to study Alzheimer’s disease, brain aging, metabolic disorders, and exercise, with an emphasis on the effects of lifestyle factors on the aging brain.

Dr. Carmichael is a Principal Investigator of National Institutes of Health-funded research studies that assess brain aging in the Bogalusa Heart Study, effects of exercise on brain health among older African Americans, and effects of exercise on skeletal muscle characteristics. He has also led or contributed to clinical trials assessing effects of pharmaceuticals and food products on the brain, using functional MRI as an outcome measure.

Headshot of panelist Judith RhodesDr. Judith Rhodes
Director, Louisiana State University Social Research & Evaluation Center

Judith Rhodes, PhD, LMSW, is the current Director of the LSU Social Research & Evaluation Center. She uses her expertise in social work and education for program design, implementation, evaluation, and grant writing. Her work investigates the school-to-justice pathway through research in school social work, school-based interventions, and educational attainment youth placed at risk. She has lead US Department of Education funded interventions with particular emphasis on cross-sector collaboration.

After growing up as a displaced southerner in the Midwest, Judith returned earned an Arts & Sciences bachelor’s degree at LSU. After home educating her two children, she returned to LSU and completed a MSW in 2007 and a PhD in Social work in 2011. Judith now serves as a Professor of Research at SREC with a focus on improving the lives of children, their families, and communities.

Headshot of panelist Willem van BoxtelDr. Willem van Boxtel
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Louisiana State University

Dr. Willem van Boxtel is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Louisiana State University. He is interested in sentence processing across the adult lifespan and in acquired neurogenic communication disorders such as aphasia. He works with fine-grained measures such as electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking, and takes a keen interest in applying experimental research methods online. Dr Van Boxtel hails from the Netherlands and spent several years in the UK (PhD, University of Essex, 2022) and Indiana (postdoctoral fellowship, Purdue University) before coming to LSU.

 

 

Headshot of panelist Matthew VincentMr. Matthew Vincent
Geologist, Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority

I am a Geologist with the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) where I work in the Feasibility Studies section in the Planning and Research Division. The mission of CPRA is to develop, implement, and enforce a comprehensive coastal protection and restoration Master Plan for the State of Louisiana. As part of the Planning and Research Division, I help develop and plan the implementation of the Coastal Master Plan by leading or managing geologic investigations, usually those with an emphasis on sediment management or subsurface geology. I serve as the project lead of our Barrier Island System Management program and Upper Basin Diversion Program. I also serve as a member of CPRA’s sediment management team where I help manage our agencies geologic and geophysical data.

 

Headshot of Panelist Darius SpeithDr. Darius Spieth
Professor, Department of Art History, Louisiana State University

Darius A. Spieth is an art historian and San Diego Alumni Association Chapter Alumni Professor at Louisiana State University. He is also the Sternberg Professor at the LSU Honors College for 2024/2025. Prof. Spieth received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and also holds an M.B.A. degree in finance from the International University of Japan in Niigata. In 2011, he was selected as Mellon Visiting Professor by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Prof. Spieth is best known for his studies on art markets and French Egyptomania, and currently serves as subject editor for Art Markets, Law and Economics for the Grove Dictionary of Art (Oxford University Press). Major books include Revolutionary Paris and the Market for Netherlandish Art (Brill, 2018) and Napoleon’s Sorcerers: The Sophisians (University of Delaware Press, 2007). He also translated into English texts by Marc Fumaroli, a member of the French Academy. Although the main emphasis of his studies is eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France, he has published on the works of a number of contemporary Californian artists and designers, such as Sandow Birk, Peter Shire, and Brian M. Viveros.