Family and friends of Ben Boussert have established a scholarship in memory of Ben, son of Christian Boussert (manager of the Glassblowing Shop) and Ann Boussert, in the LSU Foundation to honor his memory and his legacy at Louisiana State University.

Ben was tragically removed from the lives of the many he touched on July 16, 2005 in an automobile accident near Berkeley, California. In addition to Benjamin Boussert, two other Berkeley chemistry graduate students perished in this accident.

The Boussert scholarship will be dedicated to helping students who strive for excellence and exemplify the characteristics that made Ben a wonderful student, researcher, brother, and son. Please feel free to contact Dean Kevin Carman if you have questions.

Benjamin Boussert
(1977-2005)

Ben Boussert grew up in Baton Rouge. He graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1995 in the top 5% of his class, possessing a passion for science and engineering. His performance at LSU was laudatory, particularly when one considers that he double majored in chemical engineering and chemistry. Ben was a University Medalist in the LSU Class of 1999 (4.00 GPA), received the American Chemical Society's Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry in 1999, and the Department of Chemistry's Undergraduate Research Award in 1999. He conducted research for four years at LSU, under the tutelage of Professor Robin McCarley, in the area of chemical sensors. Specifically, Ben worked on a joint project with McCarley and Professor Robert Strongin that dealt with sugar detection using gold nanoparticles. His interest in nanoscience and sensing technologies grew during his tenure at LSU, and as a result, he chose to further his training in this area by attending graduate school.

Ben applied for and received two national fellowships (NSF Graduate Fellowship in Chemistry and DOE Graduate Fellowship; he was also a Hertz Fellow Semifinalist) and chose the one that matched up with the PhD research group in which he wished to participate, namely, that of Professor Paul Alivisatos of the University of California at Berkeley. Alivisatos is an extremely well-respected nanoscientist working on the fundamentals and applications of nanostructures. Ben had done well at Berkeley, and was to defend his dissertation in the next few months. His family had the opportunity of seeing Ben participate in the annual Berkeley commencement exercises in May of 2005; those of us that know his father, Christian Boussert - master glass blower for the College of Basic Sciences - saw the pride in this father's face when he spoke of this joyous event. Ben was considering a career with a governmental regulatory agency focusing on chemistry issues.

Ben was a gentle, kind, thoughtful, very intelligent young man who always had a smile in his pocket. His intellectual brilliance is amongst the best we have seen at LSU. We would all feel fortunate to have a son and brother such as Benjamin Boussert. Benjamin's potential to be a great scientist and great person are gone now, but our thoughts of him and what we imagine he could have been will fuel us all on our journey to being the best that we can be.

Robin McCarley, PhD
Department of Chemistry

Contributions to the
Ben Boussert Memorial Scholarship
should be made payable to:

LSU Foundation
3838 West Lakeshore Drive
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
Telephone: 225-578-3811
Toll-free: 800-452-7928
Fax: 225-578-0530
E-mail: donorservices@lsufoundation.org