CENTER FOR COMPUTATION & TECHNOLOGY

LSU is among the universities benefiting significantly from more than $25 million awarded Thursday from the “Post-Katrina Support Fund Initiative.” The Louisiana Board of Regents selected four targeted, scientific research projects statewide to receive more than $21 million of the funds to spur economic development after the 2005 hurricanes. The projects include $7 million to enhance research manpower at the LSU-based Louisiana Optical Network Initiative Institute for supercomputing and $5.5 million for a new Center of Excellence for Vaccine Development at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. The other two projects are heavily based in nanotechnology and the development of materials on the tiniest of scales at LSU, Louisiana Tech University and the University of New Orleans. The $3.6 million Louisiana Tech-led Center for Excellence in Integrated Smart Sensor Surveillance System is a partnership with LSU. It is to develop tiny sensors and other equipment partly for the planned “Cyberspace Command” at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, said Les Guice, Louisiana Tech vice president for research and development. The final $5 million will go toward a new Center for Advance Materials and Nanotechnology in a partnership with Louisiana Tech at UNO's Advanced Materials Research Institute. Commissioner of Higher Education Joseph Savoie said the projects all enhance the state's top research areas and promote statewide recovery. The Regents opted to focus on the targeted research areas of biological sciences, material sciences and information technology. “Each of the research and educational enhancement projects funded … addresses critical economic or educational issues facing our state,” Savoie said. The projects are not all directly related to recovery, Savoie said, but they all impact the “long-term quality of life of our citizens.” Guice said LONI's advanced supercomputing network and engineering and science capabilities places Louisiana on a “world-class” level. Kerry Davidson, Regents deputy commissioner of sponsored programs, said the vast LONI infrastructure is mostly set up, connecting the state's main research universities. But funding enough qualified research personnel to “carry LONI significantly forward” has been a problem, Davidson said. The new funding should solve that issue, he said. The Regents collected the top 32 research proposals and then a panel of nationwide experts helped pick the top four for immediate funding. The state funds are from the Louisiana Quality Education Support Fund, which is a trust fund approved by voters in a 1986 constitutional amendment. The original $540 million payment was part of a settlement between the state and federal governments over offshore oil and gas money. In the past, the fund mostly funded endowed chairs and professorships.