BATON ROUGE, LA – The LSU College of Engineering recently held its third Evening of Engineering Excellence
at the LSU Faculty Club on April 16, inducting several new members into its Society
for Engineering Excellence and Hall of Distinction.
“The Evening of Engineering Excellence is when we come together once a year and celebrate
a circle of people who have had a large, lasting impact on LSU Engineering, Louisiana
and the world,” LSU College of Engineering Dean Vicki Colvin said. “The people we
honor create ripples we feel for years, the ones who make lasting contributions to
the college, the university, and our Louisiana family. They have built fields, companies,
and communities, and have made our lives easier or safer. They’ve dreamed up new machines,
new materials, and new ways to build and create. The college is honored to induct
these businesses and individuals into its Society for Engineering Excellence and Hall
of Distinction.”
Society for Engineering Excellence
Founded in 2008, the Society for Engineering Excellence recognizes the support of
the college’s alumni and friends whose philanthropy creates a difference in the lives
of LSU Engineering students and faculty. Over the last 19 years, the college has inducted
69 individuals, corporations, and foundations into the society, each of which has
made a significant philanthropic commitment to advance engineering education at LSU.
Going into the SEE this year were DSLD Homes, Cajun Industries, ISC, and LEMOINE.
From L to R, Jeffery Purpera from DSLD Homes, Seth Lemoine from LEMOINE, Craig Messer
from ISC Constructors, Mike Moran from Cajun Industries, Dean Vicki Colvin from the
LSU College of Engineering
DSLD Homes
DSLD Homes is one of the top 30 home builders in America, building more than 40,000
homes for families in Louisiana and five other Southern states. They are the largest
home builder in the Gulf South and have played a big role in creating over 500 communities
since 2008. DSLD Homes is known for the quality and value of their work as well as
strong partnerships with local real estate brokers and agents. Their motto is “affordable
quality.” CEO Saun Sullivan says, “We always strive to provide the very best value
and service at a price our customers can afford.”
Cajun Industries
Cajun Industries is based in Baton Rouge, but the company has a national reputation
as a leader in industrial and infrastructure projects. Cajun is a general contracting
company that provides engineering, procurement, and construction services to some
of the world’s biggest companies, including Dow Chemical, Marathon Petroleum, Chevron,
and Shell. Founded in 1973, the company is notable for both the breadth and depth
of its work. Cajun serves a huge range of private industries, from oil refining and
chemical processing, as well as public clients in government. With expertise in civil
engineering, marine construction, and the deep foundation work needed for skyscrapers
and bridges, Cajun has tackled a variety of high-profile projects like the Port of
Iberia and the Lewis Creek Dam as well as power transmission lines, and construction
of refinery units, warehouses, dams, factories, fabrication facilities, and its own
glass and steel office building.
ISC
ISC Constructors was founded in Baton Rouge in 1989 and now has seven offices, including
in Texas and Ohio, and more than 4,000 employees. The company is an industrial engineering
and construction firm specializing in projects that require complex electrical, instrumentation,
and control solutions. ISC builds and maintains massive data centers, production facilities
for the food and beverage industries, and plants for refining and petrochemical companies.
ISC prides itself on safety and quality, integrity and innovation.
LEMOINE
Last year, LEMOINE celebrated its 50th anniversary. The company got its start as a family lumber yard in Lafayette and has
now grown into a major construction management firm with more than 1,000 employees
and projects in 27 states and Puerto Rico that generate more than $1 billion in annual
revenue. LEMOINE focuses its construction expertise through advisory services, which
includes comprehensive project and program management as well as support during recovery
and rebuilding efforts after hurricanes and other disasters as well as offering resiliency
services to prevent damage from a disaster. LEMOINE also runs a separate response
and resiliency team and a construction and infrastructure team that leads projects
for the healthcare, education and public works sectors as well as running signature
cultural and commercial projects like the Port Wonder Children’s Museum in Lake Charles.
LEMOINE Chairman Lenny Lemoine places a big emphasis on relationships, which he considers
key to the company’s success.
Hall of Distinction
Founded in 1979, the LSU College of Engineering Hall of Distinction recognizes individuals
who have made significant contributions to the engineering profession. The Hall of
Distinction includes 98 members including the newly inducted Ray Lasseigne, Miles
Williams, and David Zimmer.
Hall of Distinction Honorees David Zimmer, Miles Williams and Ray Lasseigne stand
with Dean Vicki Colvin
Ray Lasseigne
Ray Lasseigne is an LSU Petroleum Engineering graduate with over 50 years of oilfield
experience and is the current president and co-owner of TMR Exploration, Inc. in Shreveport.
He has worked in reservoir, drilling, and production engineering, and in prospect
generation, acquisitions, and management. He has supervised huge oil and gas fields
in Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. His command of his field not only includes
leadership out in the field, but also in legal and regulatory affairs, marketing,
and land acquisition. In 1987, Lasseigne joined TMR Exploration as its Operations
Manager and, in 1990, became a co-owner and its president. TMR is one of the more
active independents in the Shreveport area and currently operates nearly 200 wells
in four states.
Lasseigne’s service to Louisiana includes serving as a natural resource advisor to
former Gov. Bobby Jindal as well as leadership positions with the Louisiana Oil and
Gas Association, the Louisiana Governance Commission on Higher Education, and the
Louisiana Recovery Authority, which provided oversight and management of federal recovery
funds after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Lasseigne has served on the LSU Board of Supervisors, the LSU Foundation National
Board of Directors, and the LSU Health Sciences Center Foundation. In the College
of Engineering, he serves on the Petroleum Engineering Department Industry Advisory
Council.
Miles Williams
Miles Williams is also a graduate of LSU Engineering, earning his bachelor’s degree
in civil engineering in 1983. He is senior vice president of Waggoner Engineering,
a firm headquartered in Jackson that has offered civil engineering and professional
consulting services since 1976. Williams coordinated the merger of Sigma Consulting
Group into Waggoner, which now has operations throughout the southeastern United States.
He has served as senior vice president and director of Waggoner’s transportation practice
since the merger. Williams has over 33 years of technical and management experience,
with an emphasis on transportation and infrastructure projects. He helped build Sigma
Consulting Group into a successful, regional company that was named one of the “Best
Places to Work” in Baton Rouge.
Williams has served in key roles in the Louisiana Engineering Society and the Louisiana
Professional Engineering and Land Surveying Board. He chairs the LSU Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering External Advisory Board, served on the Civil Engineering
Program Advisory Committee to shape curriculum, and teaches students as an adjunct
professor leading a senior level course in real-world civil engineering applications,
and has taught for more than 30 semesters.
David Zimmer
David Zimmer is an LSU Engineering grad having earned his chemical engineering degree
in 1982. Just a few days after graduation, he was hired on with Union Carbide Corporation,
where he worked for 19 years in a variety of manufacturing operations and project
roles across three different business areas. When Dow acquired Union Carbide in 2001,
Zimmer continued to work for them for another 16 years, again rising as a leader and
working in production and project roles across the Gulf Coast.
By the time he retired from Dow, Zimmer was overseeing $5 billion in assets in 10
locations across the globe and led the company’s intellectual property program for
its manufacturing operations. Zimmer’s dedication to process safety and industry collaboration
earned him the American Chemistry Council Responsible Care Employee of the Year award
in 2017.
After retirement, Zimmer developed the chemical engineering department’s student co-op
program at LSU, then expanded those concepts to the entire College of Engineering.
In this role, he helped prepare hundreds of students each year to land full-time engineering
roles after graduation by providing resume advice, prepping students for interviews
prep, and identifying industry coop and internship roles. By the time he retired from
this role in 2025, nearly 95% of chemical engineering seniors were graduating with
manufacturing experience, and full-time hiring of chemical engineering students increased
from 60% to 95% in just two years.
