With football season in full swing, attention seems to focus on LSU’s athletes at this time of year, but we need to recognize and celebrate the scientists and scholars who advance the university’s central mission, learning and research.
All of this came to mind with the news that two LSU researchers have been awarded a $250,000 grant by the nonprofit John Templeton Foundation to study the origins of the universe.
LSU Assistant Professor Parampreet Singh and Assistant Research Professor Peter Diener, both in the LSU Department of Physics and Astronomy, will use supercomputers on LSU’s campus to process profoundly complicated equations involving the Big Bang Theory — the idea that the universe formed from an ever-expanding explosion of matter. Singh and Diener are trying to use math to consider that starting point for the universe, and what it might portend for the long-term future of the physical world.
We’re glad that this kind of deep scholarship is being pursued at LSU — and that it’s attracting the interest of organizations such as the Templeton Foundation.
Such research faces large funding challenges as state support shrinks for LSU and other Louisiana institutions of higher learning. But supporting such initiatives is critical in advancing LSU’s mission as a national research institution.
Copyright © 2011, Capital City Press LLC • 7290 Bluebonnet Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA 70810 • All Rights Reserved
Print article