GeauxTo

Marathon Oil Corporation has announced a $2.5 million gift to LSU—$1.5 million to the College of Basic Sciences and $1 million to the College of Engineering. The Basic Sciences earmark is the largest corporation donation in the college's history and will go to support its geology and geophysics department. Of the $1.5 million, $750,000 is a personal gift from Marathon President and CEO Clarence Cazalot, an LSU alumnus, and his wife, Ann. The biggest chunk of the $1.5 million will go to establish the Marathon Geoscience Diversity Enrichment Program, which will fund up to 20 undergraduate scholarships and five doctoral research fellowships aimed at attracting high-achieving students from underrepresented groups into the undergraduate and graduate programs. Funds will also go toward renovating the atrium of the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex. The engineering college's $1 million gift will go to programs aimed at attracting more talented female engineering students to LSU, enhancing "engineering literacy and awareness" in high schools, and diversity scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students, among other programs.

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