THIBODAUX – Drs. David Boudreaux, Badiollah Asrabadi and Alex Lasseigne were awarded emeritus titles during Nicholls State University’s first faculty meeting of the fall 2012 semester, held Thursday, Aug. 16. Boudreaux was named vice president for institutional advancement emeritus, and Asrabadi and Lasseigne were both named professor emeritus.
The emeritus designation recognizes exceptional dedication, outstanding accomplishments, professional contributions and years of service to the university.
- Boudreaux
Dr. David Boudreaux, a native and resident of Thibodaux, became vice president for institutional advancement in 1998 – 31 years after joining the Nicholls faculty as an instructor in the Department of English. In 1977, he became head of the Department of English and stayed in that position for 17 years before being named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1994.
As vice president for institutional advancement, Boudreaux has overseen a number of new endowments, grants and professorships. He also spearheaded several fundraising galas that have become campus traditions, including the annual Sponsor A+ Scholar Wine and Food Extravaganza, which generates scholarship funds for Nicholls students with outstanding grades and leadership ability.
Boudreaux earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1965 and Master of Arts in 1967, both from LSU. He earned his doctorate – with concentrations in eighteenth century British literature, medieval British literature and contemporary British and American literature – in 1975 from the University of Arkansas.
- Asrabadi
Dr. Badiollah Asrabadi, a 31-year Nicholls veteran, retired as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2011. He began his career at Nicholls as an associate professor of mathematics, probability and statistics and later advanced to distinguished service professor, assistant dean, associate dean and interim dean. In 2005 he officially became dean of the college.
Asrabadi’s career has included a number of community outreach and student service activities, along with several research publications and presentations. He has also been a successful grant writer, securing nearly $1.5 million over the past five years for research and other scholarly activities. Community organizations Asrabadi has served include the Bayou Region Alliance and the South Central Louisiana Association of School Superintendents.
He earned his baccaelaurate and master’s degress from the University of Tehran, followed by a doctorate in applied statistics from Kansas State University.
- Lasseigne
A three-decade veteran of Nicholls, Dr. Alex Lasseigne began his career as a math teacher at Central Lafourche High School. After various posts at additional institutions, he joined the Nicholls faculty in 1980 as an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.
Spearheading several botany courses at Nicholls, Lasseigne has served as curator of the Nicholls Herbarium for the past 31 years, increasing the university collection from a few hundred specimens to more than 25,000. He has also served as chair of the Division of Botany for the Louisiana Academy of Sciences. In addition, Lasseigne produced more than 23,000 digitized photos of the Nicholls Herbarium for the Cyberflora Louisiana Project, funded by the National Science Foundation.
Lasseigne earned his Bachelor of Science in 1967 from Nicholls, followed by a Master of Science in 1969 from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, and a doctorate from Iowa State University in 1978.
