MEET THE BUILD-A-MUSEUM TEAM

Edward Picou

The Build-a-Museum Team under Mr. Picou has offered LSU free consultant visits by museum experts. Our team Leader is Mr. Edward Picou, a Louisiana native, an LSU geology graduate, a long-time member of the LSU Basic Sciences Development Council, a geological consultant based in New Orleans, and a retiree of Shell Offshore Inc. He is Trustee Emeritus of the Paleontological Research Institution, which has built a new museum in Ithaca, New York. This museum, called the Museum of the Earth, opened in Fall 2003. See it and other PRI activities at http://www.priweb.org.

Sydney LeJeune

Sydney LeJeune is the current president of the Geoscience Associates. She has been a volunteer with the organization since 1984. Currently, Ms. LeJeune is the owner of The Office Helper Bookkeeping Services. As a member of the Chamber of Commerce Small Business Council, she feels that a new natural history museum could be an important economic development tool for the Baton Rouge area.

Bill Lee

Bill Lee is a local financier who is a past president of the ARC of Louisiana, which advocates for persons with developmental disabilities. As a “citizen scientist” Bill has contributed numerous fossils to the LSU Paleontology section of the Museum over the past 22 years. He is also a volunteer with the Florida Museum of Natural History. He has taken part in yearly excavations at Thomas Farm in Florida for the past 11 years. Bill has also been very involved with the LSU Rural Life Museum since its inception. To learn more about scheduling a talk by Mr. Lee, entitled "The state of Louisiana needs a world-class museum of natural history located in Baton Rouge, the capital city."
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Mariano Hinojosa

Mariano Hinojosa has spent his professional career in the oil and gas business. He worked as a drilling and production engineer for Conoco, Inc. Recently, he retired from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, where he served as Director of Pipelines. Mariano believes that a new natural history museum will be both a world-class research institution and a wonderful center of learning for Louisiana.

Some of the team are members of the Geoscience Associates. The Associates were instrumental in supporting LSU museum educational outreach in geology and anthropology in the 1980s and early 1990s. They helped with funding and volunteer labor in such exhibits as Lives of the Dinosaurs; DINOTREK Dinamation I & II; Discover Prehistory; Crystals, Gems, and Minerals; Discover Geography; and "Hands On" Dinosaurs. They are now supporting the Build-a-Museum effort.