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LSU CAPITAL, a center for computation and technology, hired technology guru Ed Seidel to lead the center into high-tech distinction. World-renowned for his research on black holes and high-performance computing, Seidel came to LSU from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, also known as the Albert Einstein Institute, in Potsdam, Germany. His work as head of the institute's numerical relativity group prepared him for the research that he plans to pursue using the resources and expertise available at LSU, such as the University's supercomputer, "SuperMike." LSU CAPITAL's focus is on advancing education and research by discovering the technologies of the future. Since new technology often boosts consumer demand for new products, scientists strive to use their research to stimulate the local economy. The center's technology research will focus on business, entrepreneurship, materials science, engineering, scientific visualization, bioinformatics, collaborative environments, frameworks, numerical relatively, grid computing, applied mathematics, computational fluid dynamics, networks and creative arts. "We plan to develop LSU CAPITAL into a world-renowned center for computational sciences, while at the same time raising the level of science, engineering, and humanities on campus," said Seidel.
Seidel earned his Ph.D. in relativistic astrophysics from Yale University in 1988. Before working at the Max Planck Institute, he was employed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. While holding the position as director of LSU CAPITAL, Seidel will also serve as a faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Seidel is an example of the University's effort to recruit some of the world's heaviest hitters in high-tech studies. After receiving funding from the state's Information Technology Initiative, LSU made technology upgrades to the campus and course curricula offered. High-tech changes included new labs for creative research and finance, a new residential college for students interested in technology, and a world-class supercomputer that has helped researchers study medicine, the environment and industry. Seidel's research in numerical relativity involves solving Einstein's equations with computers. He is also working on producing solutions to the problem of black holes colliding in space. Seidel's research group studies the parallel use of different computers connected by networks to solve scientific problems, in a new field called Grid Computing. At a supercomputing conference, Seidel's research group worked with a worldwide collaboration to demonstrate the solving of a single problem using 70 different computers in 15 different countries, with each machine handling a different part of the application.
"I also recruited close to a dozen people from my research in Germany to come to LSU," said Seidel. Among these physicists and computer scientists is Gabrielle Allen, who helped to lead the Cactus project in Potsdam and is taking a professorship in LSU's Department of Computer Science. "The real goal of the center is to help scientists to do better research," said Allen. "Communicating and sharing data with applications like Cactus can help technology and science to advance more quickly." The educational projects spearheaded by Seidel's group are an effort to facilitate the University's movement towards national flagship status. Another main focus of LSU CAPITAL is to benefit the state's economy, making Louisiana a better place to live, work, and visit. Contact Jennifer Hughes | LSU
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Astrophysicist Leads LSU's Technology Center 
Part of the software that makes this application possible is a product called Cactus, created by Seidel's research group in Germany. This software allows multiple computers with many processors each to simultaneously work on a single application. 
