Robert Twilley, PhD
Dr. Twilley is Executive Director of Louisiana Sea Grant College and Professor in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Science at LSU. He has been a Distinguished Professor in Louisiana Environmental Studies at LSU in 2005, and served in several administrative capacities including Associate Vice Chancellor of Research and Economic Development from 2007 to 2010 and Director of the Wetland Biogeochemistry Institute from 2004 to 2007. In 2010, Dr. Twilley served for two years as Vice President of Research at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which manages the UL Research Park and $70 million research enterprise. He earned the UL Lafayette Foundation’s Distinguished Professor Award in 2000, where he was a professor in biology from 1986 to 2004. Dr. Twilley founded the LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio in 2009, and also founded the Center for Ecology and Environmental Technology (CEET) at UL Lafayette in 1999. Most of Dr. Twilley’s research has focused on coastal wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico, throughout Latin America, and in the Pacific Islands. Dr. Twilley has published extensively on wetland ecology, global climate change, and has been involved in developing ecosystem models coupled with engineering designs to forecast the rehabilitation of coastal and wetland ecosystems.
Robert Twilley, PhD Projects & Programs:
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Fabricating the Delta
Fabricating the Delta introduced digital fabrication as an act of making, analyzing, and positioning design in relation to coastal restoration. The final product was a full-scale kiosk that presents the...Capacity Building -
Wax Lake Delta NERR Research Facility Design Studio
In the NERR Research Facility Studio, the students addressed the challenges of building within a deltaic condition. The emerging ecosystem, lying between blurred lines of land and water, provides a...Capacity Building -
UNSEEN: Interpreting Constructed Ecologies
The intent of the studio was to research regional planning, coastal ecology, ecological restoration, large-scale water management and infrastructure, and the complex relationships formed between settlement and ecology over time....Capacity Building -
Grand Isle Studio
Attempting to confront the very particular challenges of design in a transforming Louisiana landscape, the Grand Isle Studio – an architecture course at LSU – addresses the challenge of architectural...Capacity Building -
In the Mississippi Delta: Constructing with Water 2010 Venice Biennale Project
Design Speculation -
Changing Course Competition: The Giving Delta
The design competition “Changing Course” chose three multi-disciplinary design teams in a search for a bold, yet implementable, plan of action for addressing the next century on the Louisiana Delta...Design Speculation -
Mayors’ Institute on City Design
The Mayors’ Institute was intended to address the following challenges: how can design create a path for the American City to become resilient to an increasingly dynamic environment? Moreover, can...Community Planning -
River to Bayou: Restoration and Resilience – The Central Wetland Unit and the Lower 9th Ward
A team of architecture, landscape architecture, coastal ecology, economics, and engineering faculty and students designed new strategies for the Lower 9th Ward’s future. The project also engaged in community outreach...Community Planning -
Louisiana Resiliency Assistance Program (LRAP)
LRAP was founded and developed by the CSS with the state’s Office of Community Development – Disaster Recovery Unit (OCD-DRU) and with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and...Community Planning -
Center for River Studies and Exhibition Design
The design of a 9,000 square foot exhibition space and development of exhibit content on coastal protection and restoration to be housed in the Center for River Studies.Visual Communication -
Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) Visualization and Communication Program
The program is intended to educate and foster an understanding of CPRA’s efforts to implement a complex system of coastal community sustaining and restoration measures that will ensure the reduction...Visual Communication