In Review 2015-16 and 2016-17
Next Generation Mathematicians
More than 30 high school students with a passion for mathematics spent four weeks at LSU as part of the 11th Math Circle Summer Enrichment Program. The theme for the program was Combinatorics, a branch of mathematics related to the study of finite or countable discrete structures. Specialists in combinatorics helped guide the students through a series of activities with an emphasis on the mathematics of counting. Their weeks of work culminated with research projects that were shared during a poster presentation session held last July.
Honoring Excellence
On April 22, 2016,
the LSU College of Science inducted four honorees into its Hall of Distinction. The 2016 class included premier military surgeon, Brigadier General Charles Chappuis, LSU Alumni Professor Emeritus in Chemistry William “Bill” Daly, LSU Professor Emeritus in Physics & Astronomy, William “Bill” Hamilton, and renowned statistician, LSU alumnus and 2013 MacArthur Foundation genius grant winner Susan Murphy. Four additional honorees were inducted during the 2017 Hall of Distinction Ceremony held March 31, 2017. The honorees included LSU Alumni Professor Emeritus in Geology Jeff Hanor, Alumni Professor Emeritus in Physics Neil Kestner, NASA scientist and distinguished physics alumnus Don Kniffen, and Director Emerita of the LSU Center for Academic Success and retired Professor of Chemistry Saundra McGuire.
Photo | Left to right: 2016 Hall of Distinction honorees with Dean Cynthia Peterson and 2017 Hall of Distinction honorees.
Recapturing Antarctica's "Heroic Age"
LSU Department of Biological Sciences Professor Vince LiCata and Department of Communication Studies Associate Professor Trish Suchy received a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists & Writers grant for “Antarctica: Persistence of Vision,” a project to recreate modern versions of some of the most iconic photography of scientists and explorers on the Antarctic continent more than 100 years ago.
Chemistry in Space
An experiment led by LSU Chemistry Professor John Pojman was aboard the historic flight by Blue Origin last June. LSU was one of three universities, including Purdue University and Braunschweig University of Technology in Germany, selected to have an experiment aboard the flight. Pojman and his collaborators at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo., designed and conducted an experiment that tests the physics of how fluids move between each other, a principle termed effective-interfacial-tension-induced convection, which is a type of flow at the interface between two fluids. There is no way to conduct this experiment on Earth because gravity interferes with fluid dynamics. This pioneering project will test a theory that is over a century old.
A College of Science First
Glaucia Del-Rio, PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences and researcher in the Museum of Natural Science, is the first in the College of Science to receive an American Association of University Women doctoral fellowship. The AAUW has been awarding the fellowship since 1888 making it the oldest non-institutional source of graduate funding for women in the United States. Del-Rio plans to use the fellowship to support her fieldwork in the Brazilian Amazon Forest, which includes collecting data on bird communities and investigating the general evolutionary and ecological processes shaping and maintaining the forest’s avian diversity.
I'd Like to Thank the Academy...
Susan Murphy, LSU College of Science alumnus and H.E. Robbins Distinguished University Professor of Statistics and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She received her bachelor’s of science degree in mathematics in 1980 from LSU, and her PhD in statistics in 1989 from UNC.
Printing the Future in 3D
Wayne Newhauser, Dr. Charles M. Smith Chair in Medical Physics at LSU, and a team of graduate students are researching the application of 3-D scanning and printing technologies to improve cancer treatments. The 3-D printer project is one of several collaborative projects between oncologists at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center and LSU's medical physics program in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. This printing technology is helping scientists and doctors create personalized aides to support more targeted treatments of cancer tumors.
A Night at the Museum
The LSU Museum of Natural Science (MNS) offered guests a behind-the-scenes look at the collections and award-winning research that has helped make the MNS one of the top research museums in the nation. The event included nights throughout the academic year dedicated to museum collections including birds, fish, mammals, amphibians and reptiles. Scientists working with a specific collection gave short engaging talks about their work before leading visitors on a tour of their focus collection.
Return to The Pursuit 2016-2017 homepage