In number theory, it is a classical problem to determine the structure of the ideal class group of a number field. Several students at LSU have been working on this problem under the guidance of Professors P.E. Conner and J. Hurrelbrink. The students associated graphs to quadratic fields, so that properties of the graphs yielded results about the structure of the ideal class group.

During work on her 1994 dissertation in number theory, Leigh Ann Myers, in collaboration with her fellow graduate student Galen Turner, came across this beautiful graph. Except for the isolated vertex, this graph is the edge complement of the Petersen graph, one of the most fundamental and well-known of all graphs.

In his 1997 dissertation, another LSU graduate student, Brian Heck, called this graph the Myers-Turner graph. The Department has adopted this graph as the logo for its website to symbolize the many years of achievement by its graduate students.