Student Enrichment

Pennington Biomedical is a non-degree granting institution of the Louisiana State University (LSU) system. Our center is located approximately 4 miles from the main LSU A&M campus and approximately 60 miles from LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. However, we are fully committed to training students in obesity and nutrition research endeavors.

In 2012 we launched a Non-Employee Training Program to allow undergraduate and graduate students seeking hands-on experience, to be exposed to the research at Pennington Biomedical. Trainees are given the opportunity to shadow faculty and postdoc mentors and to learn about all areas of biomedical science and to interact with cores and services offered through the NORC. Every NORC regular member at Pennington Biomedical and every core of the NORC has trained students in this program. Our Non-Employee Training Program also offers an avenue for undergraduate students who are conducting Honors Thesis at LSU to partner with NORC labs and mentors.

Trainee and Internship Opportunities: Students can participate in various research training opportunities. Please visit the Pennington Biomedical site for more information. This year, 2 of these students received awards at the 2020 LSU Discover Day, an undergraduate research symposium. Sai Pochana received 2^nd place recognition in the overall slide show presentation category and Gracie Williams received 1^st place recognition in the Humanities & Social Sciences category. Both students are working with Drs. Amanda Staiano and Chelsea Kracht in the Pediatric Obesity and Health Behavior Laboratory. Dr. Staiano is a NORC faculty member and an alumni of the T32 “Training in Obesity Research” program. Dr. Kracht is a current trainee in the T32 “Training in Obesity Research” program under the mentorship of Drs. Amanda Staiano and Peter Katzmarzyk.  

Undergraduate Thesis Opportunities: The following students have worked with Mentors at Pennington Biomedical on their undergraduate or graduate thesis research.