LSU Research Works


As a proud NASA Space-Grant University, LSU reaches for the stars with our commitment to discovery. From challenging students to detect gamma rays in lightning strikes to helping to prove Einstein’s theory of relativity, LSU is both globally competitive and universally driven.

Catching Lightning

In April, NASA awarded a Louisiana Space Grant Consortium, or LaSPACE, research team at LSU a grant to develop an instrument that would fly into a thunderstorm to measure how lightning can produce high energy gamma-rays.

Exploring Worlds

LSU alumnus and Baton Rouge native Keith Comeaux served as test conductor, team chief, and flight director for NASA’s Mars Curiosity launch, eight-month flight, and landing on the Red Planet.

Discovering New Origins

An experiment led by LSU Chemistry Professor John Pojman was aboard the historic flight by Blue Origin, a program established by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to develop an enduring human presence in space. LSU was one of three universities selected to have an experiment aboard this year’s flight.

Confirming Universal Theories

Signals from two merging black holes, each about 30 times the mass of our sun, lying 1.3 billion light-years away, were detected by a group of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO, scientists, including researchers from LSU. This discovery has confirmed Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity.

To learn more about LSU’s explorations into the final frontier, visit