What was conveniently left out is that Shiva isn't a demon, but an enlightened Yogi and his destruction is the destruction of the ego and illusion. He is the gate keeper of higher consciousness. So it makes sense he would be venerated in a scientific organisation that see themselves as bringing humanity out of ignorance.
Shiva is a god(one of the primary gods), not a yogi, even tho "In benevolent aspects, he is depicted as an omniscient Yogi" -wiki. But shiva doesent even have avatar like many of the other gods, because he is beyond everything. But some say that shiva has many avatars, or to be more precise, aspects of him have avatars. Also because of so many traditions say slightly different things about him, its really not worth arguing about.
This Aum(à¥, also sometimes written Om) represents shakti(divine energy) which has 3 aspects A = Brahma(creation), U = Vishnu(preservation) and M = Shiva(liberation or/and destruction).
But yes, this thing also applies to destruction of ego, not just the universe, these old religions like to combine things in this manner.
If you look at the theory of cyclical model(
Cyclic model - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) of the universe, you could say that brahma is the big bang, vishnu preserves the universe between the cycles and shiva is the big crunch(end of the cycle).
Also one funny thing about this, it is said that shiva had his eyes covered by his feminine aspect parvati, which made the earth go dark, then a flame came from shivas forehead and revealed his third eye, which gave light to the world again. But if shiva is to open the third eye completely(his third eye is half closed), the universe is destroyed.