Grant & Melissa Gibson Lab Dedication

The formal dedication ceremony for The Grant & Melissa Gibson Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory was held on 9 September 2016.  This new physics lab, which is located in Broussard Hall, was made possible through the generosity of our physics alumnus Dr. Grant Gibson and his wife Melissa Gibson.

The purpose of the new laboratory is to involve students in active research projects coordinated by physics faculty. It will offer students from across a range of majors - physics, geosciences, engineering, biology, computer science - the opportunity to do interdisciplinary research in materials science, biophysics, geophysics,  nuclear physics, applied optics and acoustics/ultrasonics. A new curriculum, being developed specially for this lab, will first introduce students to instrumentation and research techniques through specialized hands-on experiments, after which they will join a research project. The preliminary familiarization experiments include basic electronics, phase-sensitive detection, phase-locked loops, modulation/demodulation, frequency mixing, operation of oscilloscopes, signal analyzers, lock-in amplifiers etc. Examples of projects are optical and ultrasonic imaging, optical information processing, laser Doppler velocimetry, dynamic scattering from suspensions and emulsions, nuclear spectroscopy, ultrasonic materials characterization and many others.

Visit the Grant & Melissa Gibson Lab Dedication Photo Gallery for a few images of the dedication.