A multipurpose university, Lamar was established to provide educational, scientific, technical, and cultural resources to both local residents and scholars from abroad. The university's mission in graduate education is broadbased at the master's level, doctorates in engineering and deaf education and includes a Ph.D. program in Chemical Engineering. Lamar ranks second among state institutions in faculty who have received the prestigious Piper Professor Award since its inception in 1958.

Lamar's applied research is concentrated in areas of unique strength. Chemical Engineering and Civil Engineering collaborate to form the Environmental Engineering Program which prepares students uniquely qualified for work in industry. Programs in Chemical Engineering focus on process chemistry. The department has a total of over 5,000 square feet of research space in three separate lab areas with a special interest in the area of waste minimization. Civil engineering programs support growing activity in the biological treatment of hazardous wastes.

Lamar's Chemistry Department studies means of dehalogenation and solidification/stabilization of hazardous wastes in one of ten laboratories that are devoted exclusively to research.

In 1990, Lamar University made a major commitment to environmental research by establishing the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory (ECL) as a support facility for the entire campus community. Approximately one million dollars was invested in instrumentation for this laboratory.