On Jan. 18, the Board of Regents appointed Prem Paul as the new vice chancellor of research and economic development at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
With Paul at the wheel, research and development at UNL has blossomed over the past semester. Projects at the university have focused on everything from big bridges to microscopic particles.
Engineers at UNL received a $2 million grant from the National Academy of Sciences' Transportation Research Board to develop more reliable, longer lasting bridges.
"They're going to be doing a research project to do two things: Make existing bridges last longer through renovation and design new bridges that will last 100 years or more," said Vicki Miller, research communications coordinator. "It has the potential to affect bridge design coast to coast."
In other news, the Schorr Center became the new headquarters for the Research Computing Facility, and will help store data from the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest particle accelerator.
The LHC, housed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research on the border between France and Switzerland, accelerates protons to the speed of light and rams them into each other, creating particles similar to those that existed shortly after the Big Bang.
Data produced by the LHC will be stored on systems all over the world, including Red, a supercomputer at UNL.
"UNL is playing a prominent role in the largest physics experiment in history," said David Swanson, RCF director. "This positions UNL to play a similar role in other projects in disciplines ranging from the fine arts, to the humanities, to other branches of science and engineering."
Thanks to an investment in high-end networking by the office of research, the RCF is able to move data almost 100 times faster than peak rates from two years ago, Swanson added.
In addition to engineering and physics research, scientists at UNL completed several chemistry endeavors.
Larkin Powell, an associate professor of conservation biology and animal ecology, helped track a mountain lion that wandered into the state from the Black Hills in South Dakota. Animals the mountain lion devoured on its journey became part of the predator's claw tissue. By analyzing the tissue, Larkin and other UNL researchers could map the route the big cat took.
Another mountain lion was recently killed in Chicago, and scientists there are sending one of its claws to UNL to be studied.
"It provides regional recognition for UNL that we can do this," Larkin said. "It's making more headlines than anything else I've done. It's an interesting use of chemistry."
But researchers at the university didn't forget to have fun while they were working.
Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, a UNL associate professor of physics and astronomy, wrote the book "The Physics of NASCAR: How to Make Steel + Gas + Rubber = Speed."
While researching the book, which analyzes NASCAR from a math and science standpoint, Leslie-Pelecky got the chance to drive a stock car going 150 mph at Texas Motor Speedway.
"I think the most interesting thing was getting firsthand experience to put with numbers," Leslie-Pelecky said. "I can't count how many times I've worked the problem of finding the centripetal force on a car going around a banked track."
adamtempleton@dailynebraskan.com
is a member of the 
