View President Alexander'stestimony, which begins at49:44

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Official newsletter of the LSU College of Science | June 2015

NEWS/EVENTS

Testifying for ChangePresident F. King Alexander Testifies before Senate HELP Committee About Improving Higher Ed Access and Affordability

LSU President and higher education policy expert F. King Alexander was recentlyinvited to provide testimony to the Senate HELP, or Healthcare, Education, Labor& Pensions, Committee. He has provided testimony on Capitol Hill many timesthroughout his career, including to the House Committee on Labor and Educationin 2003 and 2007, and to the Commission on Civil Rights in May 2015.Alexander's expert testimony has helped to guide federal mandates shapinghigher education policy and ensuring more students have a viable path toward aquality, affordable college degree. > More

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T. Gregory Guzik,LaSPACE director and LSUphysics professor

LSU Receives $18.5 Million NIH Grant to Build Biomedical Research Pipeline LSU has received an $18.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, orNIH, to support an Institutional Development Award, or IDeA, Network ofBiomedical Research Excellence, or INBRE. The IDeA program builds researchcapacities in states that historically have had low levels of NIH funding bysupporting basic, clinical and translational research; faculty development; andinfrastructure improvements. IDeA is administered by NIH's National Institute ofGeneral Medical Sciences and is a component of its Center for ResearchCapacity Building. LSU's INBRE, named the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network, or LBRN,was established in September 2001. This $18.5 million grant was matched by a$1.2 million supplement from the Board of Regents. This is the third five-yeargrant received for this program. The total funding awarded for the LBRNprogram is now more than $55 million. > More

Louisiana Secures $2.5M from NASA for Space-related Research and Higher Ed

The Louisiana Space Grant Consortium, or LaSPACE, which manages the NASASpace Grant and NASA Experimental Program to Stimulate CompetitiveResearch, or EPSCoR programs, has been awarded three significant multi-yearawards from NASA to support space-related research development and highereducation programs in Louisiana. Over the next three years, Louisiana will receive$2.5 million from NASA, plus a crucial investment of about $1.9 million from theBoard of Regents Support Fund.

"These three awards demonstrate that NASA recognizes the importance ofLouisiana's aerospace R&D and workforce development," said T. Gregory Guzik,LaSPACE director and LSU professor of physics & astronomy. "The robust andcontinued investments from the Board of Regents proves Louisiana's commitmentto growing STEM-based research and industry."

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Study Sheds New Light on How the Continents Came Together A long-standing fact widely accepted among the scientific community has beenrecently refuted, which now has major implications on our understanding ofhow Earth has evolved.

Until recently, most geologists had determined the land connecting North andSouth America, the Isthmus of Panama, had formed 3.5 million years ago. Butnew data shows that this geological event, which dramatically changed theworld, occurred much earlier. In a comprehensive biological study, researchershave confirmed this new information by showing that plants and animals hadbeen migrating between the continents nearly 30 million years earlier.

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Twin Genes Researchers Discover Second Stress Response Hormone in Louisiana Garfish Karen Maruska, LSU assistant professor of biological sciences, and postdoctoralscholar Brian Grone at the University of California, San Francisco, haveuncovered the long lost twin of one of the most extensively studied genes in thebrain. The researchers' discovery, documented in the May edition of The Journalof Comparative Neurology, will provide valuable insight into the evolution of thisfamily of genes and their role in controlling stress and other physiologicalfunctions. > More

Researchers Document the Impact of Asteroidsthat Hit the Earth Billions of Years Ago Research led by LSU geologist Gary Byerly and Donald Lowe at StanfordUniversity shows asteroids that impacted the Earth repeatedly billions of yearsago released so much energy that the heat baked the skies and boiled theoceans. The researchers' work was published in the journal Geology. > More

PhD Students Learn Basic Cryo-ElectronMicroscopy Techniques at 3D Cryo-EM Workshop Erin Schexnaydre, LSU PhD student in biological sciences, and other cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) experts, provided a crash course in state-of-the-artsample preparation, transfer and imaging, and image processing during a three-day workshop for PhD students and post-graduates interested in learning basiccryo-EM techniques. The event, led and organized by LSU graduate students,was a part of the university's Education and Enhancement of Science GraduateWorkshop Series.

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College Gears Up for BIOS 2015 The July 17 deadline for the Biology Intensive Orientation for Students, or BIOS,is almost here. BIOS is a one week intensive program specifically for incomingbiological sciences majors and other first-year students whose majors requirethem to take Biology 1201. The program is designed to help these students makethe transition to the expectations of college prior to the start of the fall semester.

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LSU Year in Review 2014-15LSU Professor of Physics & Astronomy Bradley Schaefer and College ofScience graduate and Gates Cambridge Scholar Zachary Fitzpatrick arefeatured in LSU's Year in Review video.

Take a look!

KUDOS

Computational Chemist Kenneth Lopata Receives Powe Junior Faculty Award Kenneth Lopata, assistant professor of chemistry with a joint appointment inLSU's Center for Computation and Technology, was one of two LSU facultymembers to receive the Ralph E. Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards, from theOak Ridge Associated Universities, or ORAU. Lopata and Celalettin Emre Ozdemir, an assistant professor in the Departmentof Civil & Environmental Engineering, were among 35 faculty members atORAU-member institutions throughout the U.S. to be awarded grants for the2015-16 academic year.

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C. Deibel

M. Gaarde

J. Pojman

Assistant Professor of Physics & Astronomy Catherine Deibel was one of 44 scientists selected from acrossthe nation to receive funding from the Department of Energy Office of Science Early Career ResearchProgram. Grant recipients included 17 from DOE's national laboratories and 27 from U.S. universities. Deibelis the first at LSU to receive this highly competitive grant.

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Professor of Physics & Astronomy Mette Gaarde was elected to the Division for Atomic, Molecular, and OpticalSciences, or DAMOP, executive committee within the American Physical Society.

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John Pojman, professor of chemistry and owner of Pojman Polymer Products, visited the New Orleans Studioof Glassworks to test his formula for 3P QuickCure Clay.

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MARQUEE PUBLICATIONS Phil Adams, professor of physics & astronomy, and Tijiang Liu, postdoctocal researcher, published "EnhancedElectron Coherence in Atomically Thin Nb3SiTe6" in the May online edition of Nature Physics. The paperexplores how the vibrations of atoms in a material change when the material is made very thin.This worksuggests that electronic devices could be fabricated from these two-dimensional materials and these deviceswould have superior electrical properties to those of current technologies. > More Jonathan Dowling , professor and Hearne Chair of Theoretical Physics; graduate student Jonathan Olson ;undergraduate student Evan Rabeaux ; and colleagues have published a paper in the May edition of PhysicalReview Letters titled " Linear Optical Quantum Metrology with Single Photons: Exploiting SpontaneouslyGenerated Entanglement to Beat the Shot-Noise Limit ." Their research shows that a very simple scheme,using just single photons, is able to perform quantum measurement with a degree of precision impossibleusing classical light, ushering in a new era for quantum measurement.

Lydia Jagetic , physics graduate student, and Wayne Newhauser, Dr. Charles M. Smith Chair of MedicalPhysics and professor and director of the LSU Medical Physics and Health Physics program, published aproof-of-concept study on a novel dose model for radiation cancer therapy. Experimental portions of the work

College of Science May 2015 University Medalists

were performed at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Baton Rouge. The long-term goal of the study is toenable clinicians to improve outcomes for patients with good prospects for long-term survival.

> More

Wayne Newhauser , Rui Zhang, assistant professor of physics & astronomy, and Oleg Vassiliev,adjunct professor of physics & astronomy, have published a paper titled "Reducing the Cost of ProtonRadiation Therapy: The Feasibility of a Streamlined Treatment Technique for Prostate Cancer." The paperexplores ways to reduce the cost of proton radiotherapy for cancer patients while increasing convenience forpatients, especially those being treated far from home.

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STAR STUDENTS

Math Major Mentors High Achieving Students in Duke Talent Identification Program LSU senior mathematics major and future math teacher Michelle Laskowski willbe testing her teaching chops this summer as a mentor in the Duke UniversityTalent Identification Program, or Duke TIP, at the Pisgah Astronomical ResearchInstitute Observatory in Rosman, North Carolina. > More

College of Science Celebrates the Class of 2015 The LSU College of Science has a long-standingreputation for graduating some of LSU's top scholars.The college continued that tradition of excellence duringits spring 2015 ceremony held May 15 in the MaddoxField House. The College of Science Class of 2015 includes 17University Medalists, students graduating with thehighest grade point average; 13 with College Honors, thehighest recognition awarded jointly by the College ofScience and the Honors College; and 120 with LatinHonors. The College also had two students to graduatewith the Distinguished Communicator Award and onecommissioned as an officer in the Armed Forces.

Dean Cynthia Peterson presided over the exercise andgeology alumnus and co-founder/co-owner of HoustonEnergy LP Ron Neal served as the keynote speaker.

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Ron Neal, co-founder and co-owner of Houston Energy LP and geology alumnus

Photo (left to right): Bruno Beltran (Stanford), Jason Mueller (Bristol), Rachael Keller (Columbia), Paxton Turner (MIT), and Avery St. Dizier (Cornell).

"Serious" faces from Dean Cynthia Peterson and ourMay math graduates

May Math Graduates Accepted to Top PhD Programs

This fall, some of the college's top math graduates willbegin a new chapter in their academic career in some ofthe nation's most presitigious PhD and Mastersprograms.

After working at Yale this summer, Bruno Beltran willmove on to Stanford's PhD program in chemical &systems biology. Jason Mueller will attend graduateschool at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdomwhere he plans to pursue a PhD in quantum engineering.Rachel Keller is participating in the RIPS Program inHong Kong this summer and will attend ColumbiaUniversity in the fall to pursue a PhD in appliedmathematics. Paxton Turner will report to MIT in the fallto began working towards a PhD in mathematics andAvery St. Dizier will pursue a PhD in mathematics atCornell University.

> This is just a sampling of Math's stellar graduates.Click HERE for more information about the department'sspring graduates.

College Hosts 40th Annual Choppin Honors Convocation

The College of Science celebrated the achievements of its

Photo (left to right): Jason Mueller, OutstandingSenior Award; Rachael Keller, Outstanding SeniorAward; Jennifer Kenyon, Outstanding Junior Award;and Nikka Khorsandi, Outstanding SophomoreAward.

Jeff Lester, from left, Matt McCarroll, John Havens,Jud Grady, Ron Neal with scissors), Billy Harrison(hidden behind Neal), Keith Jordan, Marty Phillips,Clarence Cazalot, and Phil Martin.

Photo by Rhonda Rogers Armor

stellar students and faculty during the 40th Annual DeanArthur R. Choppin Honors Convocation April 28 in theStudent Union Royal Cotillion Ballroom. More than 60awards were given including College of ScienceOutstanding Senior, Junior, and Sophomore Awards, TheDean's Award, Tiger Athletic Fund UndergraduateTeaching Awards, Distinguished Dissertation Awards and

various departmental recognitions.

> Click HERE for a complete list of this year's awardrecipients

ALUMNI

LSU Alumni Brand Petroleum Club Watering Hole the Bayou Bengal Bar Ron Neal, geology alumni, co-founder/co-owner ofHouston Energy LP and a director on the Petroleum Clubof Houston board , spearheaded an initiative to raisethe necessary funds to win the naming rights for the sleekwatering hole in the club's new digs. Now dubbed theBayou Bengal Bar, thanks to the efforts of 12 LSU grads,all leaders in the energy industry, the brass plaque willforever stake their claim atop the 35-story Total Plaza.

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Remembering SU President Emerita and LSU Alumnus Dolores Spikes Dolores Spikes, an unwavering supporter for equal access toeducation in Louisiana, died June 1 in Baton Rouge. A trailblazer inmathematics and higher education administration, Spikes was the

SU System President Emerita and LSUAlumnus Dolores Spikes

first African American to earn a PhD in mathematics from LSU andthe first woman to lead a public university system in the U.S.

Spikes earned a BS in mathematics from Southern University (SU) in1957, followed by an MS degree in mathematics from the Universityof Illinois in 1958, and a PhD in mathematics from LSU in 1971.

In 1961, she returned to SU as an assistant professor ofmathematics. By the late 1980s she served as chancellor for SUBaton Rouge and SU New Orleans, and in 1988 was appointedpresident of the SU System.

The college is honored to have Dr. Dolores Spikes among our mostdistinguished alumni. She left an indelible mark on higher educationin Louisiana and throughout the U.S.

> More

DEVELOPMENT

NEW DEAN'S CIRCLE MEMBERS The College of Science would like to welcome the newest members of the Dean's Circle. Thank you for your contribution to the teaching and research activities in the college.

Dr. Jason C. Miller & Mrs. Jill B. Miller, May 2015 Mr. and Mrs. Joseph & Kim Reid, May 2015

Click HERE for a complete list of Dean's Circle Members

www.science.lsu.edu

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES | CHEMISTRY | GEOLOGY & GEOPHYSICS | MATHEMATICS | PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY

MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE

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