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Showing posts with the label Louisiana State University

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY: A Blast from the Past

  I've lived for at least three years in Hawaii, Washington DC, California and Louisiana.   Born in Honolulu and, aside from college, three years working for the U.S. Senate and travel, spent most my time in Hawaii. Had whole summers in California with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory ( twice ) working on laser fusion and NASA Ames Research Center on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. 3 years and 7 months at Stanford University. 3 years and 7 months at Louisiana State University.  With close friends. Today, my nostalgic Tuesday topic will be LSU, for they just won the  76th college world series championship , in what might have been the best ever. Started with 64 teams in tournament play. #1 rated was Wake Forest, #2 Florida and #5 LSU. 8 teams survived the super regionals, those teams above, and Stanford, TCU, Oral Roberts, Virginia and Tennessee. The first time LSU and Wake Forest played, the Demon Deacons won, 3-2.  They faced each other two more times, and

HARRY TOUPS: My Friend and Colleague

  Above,  Harry Toups  today.  Sure, it's unfair, for that's what he looks like now, and here I am fifty years ago in my research lab at LSU.  The last time I saw him was 14 years ago when my wife Pearl and I went to the 2008 Sugar Bowl game.  The day after we were supposed to rent a car and drive to the LSU campus to meet with Harry and his wife Margaret.  However, it was so foggy that I cancelled that trip.  Instead, they met us in New Orleans, and we talked all day. Harry worked along side me when I earned my PhD in chemical engineering, as I suffered through a  dissertation program  that involved getting industrial funds to pay for the equipment, build a tunable later ( before one could be purchased ), then construct a micro reactor to break DNA/RNA bonds of  E. coli , not long after Watson and Crick found them.  No one in his right mind trying to get a PhD actually tries to invent his own plan to do something never done before.  Harry was smart.  He did some computer model