Last week, LSU released a YouTube video to commemorate the role its researchers played in the titanic discovery of gravitational waves.
The video is just one of at least eight the university has produced and uploaded to the Internet over the past month as part of the LSU Research Works initiative. Each video showcases research conducted at LSU’s main campus, medical schools or research centers.
“What we’re trying to do is show the people of Louisiana how the research at LSU impacts their daily life,” says Kristine Sanders, a university spokeswoman.
The videos and accompanying fact sheets are available on LSU’s website for the public to view. The videos are also collected in an LSU Research Works playlist on YouTube.
The topics featured in the initial offering include research on cancer, autism, alzheimer’s, the eroding coastline and hurricanes. Sanders says the research featured in the videos reflects topics that impact all Louisiana residents.
The initiative has no specific timeline, and will continue for the foreseeable future, Sanders says. There are a plethora of research projects going on at the university all the time, so there is a variety of options to choose from for future features. Deans and department heads have been asked for their input on which projects should be featured, Sanders says.
The videos are generally around two to three minutes long. They feature interviews with researchers who describe their project or what their department does, as well as how it affects people in their daily lives.
For example, Jan Hondzinski, an LSU School of Kinesiology professor and LSU Tai Chi program director, explains in one video how the Tai Chi program helps older people, some of whom have Parkinson’s or peripheral neuropathy. In another video, Jerry Spivey, professor of chemical engineering and head of LSU’s Center for Atomic Level Catalyst Design, explains how researchers at the center work to convert resources into clean energy.
The research featured comes not only from the flagship campus in Baton Rouge, but also from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, the medical schools in Shreveport and New Orleans, and the LSU AgCenter.
—Ryan Broussard
