By Jonathan RosenblattThe Daily Northwestern

After his home and much of his research was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Tulane University biochemistry Prof. Arthur Lustig came to Northwestern with his family and many members of his lab.

Once at NU, Lustig was able to continue his research on telomeres and chromosomes.

“Coming to Northwestern provided a structure to continue work and not feel like everything had stopped,” he said. “It’s probably what saved me from really losing my mind.”

It has been one year since Lustig and about 50 Tulane students who came to NU for the first quarter of the academic year returned to Tulane.

While many are still rebuilding and resettling, those interviewed say they won’t forget their quarter at NU. For Lustig, who is back researching at Tulane and living in a suburb of New Orleans until his house is completed this June, some sense of normalcy has returned, although there are still struggles that lie ahead.

“About 80 percent of my research was destroyed; some of the samples were 20 years old,” Lustig said. “Regrowth occurs as a slow process.”

Even in the brief quarter that the Tulane students studied at NU, many created relationships that they have been able to sustain until now.

“Those of us that lived in PARC all got pretty close, and they are still my friends now,” Tulane sophomore Garrett Jacobs said. “And just recently a bunch of people from Northwestern came down to visit.”

Although the Tulane campus did not experience extensive flooding, the surrounding areas are just beginning to rebuild.

“They haven’t gotten very far,” Jacobs said. “They rebuilt the levy and have just started to redo power lines … It’s going very slowly.”

Although for most the transition back to Tulane was smooth, the students said they still have fond memories and even miss certain aspects of their somewhat hectic time at NU.

“I really enjoyed the football games at Northwestern and the special traditions Northwestern has, like painting the rock and changing the clock tower,” Tulane graduate Blake Roter said.

There was one thing that Roter was happy to leave behind in Evanston: “The weather.”

Reach Jonathan Rosenblatt at [email protected].