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The Advocate 08-14-2026

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F r i d ay, au g u s t 14, 2026

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LSU scientists join federal ‘Genesis Mission’ Particle accelerator, nuclear reactor researchers collaborate in AI push

BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer

LAKE MANAGEMENT

Conservancy eyed for oversight of University Lakes, BR City Park BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD Staff writer

Along with discussing the future look of one of Baton Rouge’s most notable parks, another proposal has sparked some debate: Should a new, private nonprofit be in charge of both the University Lakes and City-Brooks Park areas? The private nonprofit organization in question is called a conservancy, which is used to manage and fund a park system. Moncus Park in Lafayette and Hermann Park in Houston both operate under conservancies. Something similar in Baton Rouge that involves its parks agency, LSU and the city-parish could be created as part of the City-Brooks Park & Lakes Vision Plan. Sasaki Associates created an 18-page memo in August that outlined a potential plan for governance and management of City Park and University Lakes, saying “a need for this structure is urgent” and that the current “disjointed oversight of this high-potential asset has limited its ability to thrive.” Sasaki is the private firm hired by BREC to create the master plan for City-Brooks Park, the design of Wampold Park and the governance structure for the area. The plan, which was presented to the vision plan committee this week, suggests establishing a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservancy focused only on managing the lakes and park. Current landowners,

STAFF FILE PHOTOS

A golfer sends their ball to the green while enjoying an early afternoon tee time in August 2025 at City-Brooks Community Park in Baton Rouge. BREC, LSU and the city-parish, would be encouraged to enter a cooperative endeavor agreement to support the initiative. BREC Superintendent Brooks Williams, who started the job this month, emphasized that plenty of questions from the committee and public still need to be answered, like how a conservancy model would be executed or how much it would cost.

“You’ve heard it in a bunch of different ways: There’s a fear of mediocrity if BREC runs it. If BREC were to run a reimagined City-Brooks Park, it’s going to be done at a mediocre level,” Williams said. “A conservancy has that ability to fundraise. It has that ability to get people to buy in. It

ä See PROPOSAL, page 5A

A colorless industrial building sits off Jefferson Highway in Baton Rouge, easy to miss. Cars pass outside while, behind the nondescript walls, a vast network of wires, pipes and computer equipment hums lowly. In a massive ring overlooking and encircling the experiments taking place down below, electrons race just under the speed of light. They shoot out the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. The contraption is called a synchrotron, and it is helping discover how the universe works at the most essential level. “We have light that comes from God, I call it,” LSU physics professor Phillip Sprunger said. The light produced by this particle accelerator is used to study all manner of scientific “black boxes.” How to detect cancer earlier, how to extract critical materials from Sprunger U.S. soil — all those leaps in scientific discovery 10 years down the line can first be seen here at LSU’s Louisiana Light Source, Sprunger explained. Now, Sprunger is thinking about how artificial intelligence can hasten and enhance those discoveries. Can it anticipate failures before they happen? Can it devise ideas of its own to stabilize the electron orbit and maximize the amount of light that comes out? Across the country, hundreds of scientists in laboratories and specialized research sites are asking similar questions about how to inject AI into their research. The federal government announced in July it had selected 278 projects and dedicated over $5 billion to the expansive Genesis Mission, an initiative launched by President Donald Trump last year to

ä See SCIENCE, page 4A

State task force begins review of school-funding formula Group has until Jan. 1 to revamp Louisiana’s nearly $4B allocation system BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer

A high-stakes review of Louisiana’s system for allocating billions of dollars to public schools each year kicked off Thursday, launching a process that in just a

WEATHER HIGH 98 LOW 76 PAGE 8B

few months could produce a plan to overhaul the decades-old funding system. The “top-to-bottom review” of the state’s school-funding system is being conducted by a 15-member task force, which held its first meeting Thursday at the State

recommend a “revised or replacement formula,” according to the resolution that established the Capitol in Baton Rouge. Estab- group. The deadline gives the lished by the state Legislature and group less than five months to recomposed largely of lawmakers, vamp a system that sends schools the group will analyze the for- about $4 billion annually and has mula that determines how much been in operation, with only slight state funding each public school changes, for more than 30 years. “It’s an abbreviated timeline for receives. By Jan. 1, the task force must the very large amount of work

Business ......................3B Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................8D Deaths .........................5B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....5D-7D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C

that’s been placed before this task force,” said the group’s chair, Luke Morris, who is special counsel to Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, a driving force behind the funding review. Morris, who is representing the Senate leader on the panel, opened the meeting by noting the large

ä See FUNDING, page 4A

102ND yEAR, NO. 45


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