Acquisition of LA-ICPMS and SEM-EDS for an Elemental Analysis Facility at The Field Museum

在国家科学基金会重大研究仪器奖的支持下，P. Ryan威廉姆斯博士和他的同事将在伊利诺伊州芝加哥的菲尔德博物馆建立一个元素分析实验室（EAL）。EAL的目的是整合地球，行星和人类学科学中基于收藏的原始实地研究。主要研究项目包括：1）研究南美洲，中美洲，非洲和大洋洲的文化生产，互动和交流的考古学，2）推进菲尔德博物馆世界着名的自然历史收藏的材料保护事业，3）通过陨石分析研究小行星和行星的形成和演变，（4）通过对大洋和大陆火山岩的分析，研究地幔和地壳中的岩浆作用。EAL将容纳一个四极电感耦合等离子体质谱仪与激光烧蚀系统，这将允许分析材料的微量和微量元素，以最小的破坏性影响，和一个大腔室扫描电子显微镜与能量色散X射线光谱仪的结构成像，元素映射，和无损鉴定的主要和次要元素成分的标本和文物。这个设施，提供给所有博物馆的研究人员和合作的教师和学生从附近的大学，将使菲尔德博物馆自然历史材料分析在北方伊利诺伊州的领先中心。 此外，它将使博物馆能够更充分地利用其人类学、地质/古生物学、动物学和植物学收藏中储存的化学和结构信息。EAL支持的项目整合了人类学和地球与行星科学的本科生和研究生的研究和培训，这项研究的结果将通过博物馆的展览和公共教育计划每年教育数十万学童和数百万游客。这些项目包括来自不同背景的学者，EAL将成为许多芝加哥地区高等教育机构的资源。 威廉姆斯博士和他的同事将通过与当地大学的互惠协议，教授使用EAL的课程，EAL将作为整个芝加哥学术界学生的研究工具。最后，关于文化互动和交流、地球和地球上生命的演变以及地球在更广阔宇宙中的地位的研究结果，都与理解人类从何而来和社会走向何方极为相关。

With support from a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation award, Dr. P. Ryan Williams and his colleagues will establish an Elemental Analysis Laboratory (EAL) at The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. The aim of the EAL is to integrate collections-based and original field research in the earth, planetary, and anthropological sciences. Principal research programs include 1) examining the archaeology of cultural production, interaction, and exchange in South America, Mesoamerica, Africa, and Oceania, 2) advancing the cause of material conservation of The Field Museum's world renowned natural history collections, 3) examining the formation and evolution of asteroids and planets through the analysis of meteorites, and 4) investigating magmatic processes in the Earth's mantle and crust through the analysis of oceanic and continental volcanic rocks. The EAL will house a quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer witha laser ablation system, which will permit the analysis of minor and trace elements of materials with minimal destructive impact, and a large-chambered scanning electron microscope with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer for structural imaging, elemental mapping, and nondestructive identification of major and minor element compositions of specimens and artifacts. This facility, available to all museum research staff and collaborating faculty and students from nearby universities, will make The Field Museum a leading center for natural history materials analysis in northern Illinois. Moreover, it will allow the Museum to much more fully exploit the chemical and structural information stored in its anthropological, geological/ paleontological, zoological and botanical collections. The projects enabled by the EAL integrate research and training of undergraduate and graduate students in anthropology and the earth and planetary sciences, and the results of this research will educate hundreds of thousands of school children and millions of visitors annually through the Museum's exhibition and public education programs. These projects incorporate scholars from a diversity of backgrounds, and the EAL will serve as a resource to many Chicago area institutions of higher education. Dr. Williams and his colleagues will teach classes employing the EAL through reciprocal agreements with local universities, and the EAL will serve as a research tool for students throughout the Chicago academic community. Finally, the results of this research on cultural interaction and exchange, the evolution of the earth and the life on it, and the earth's place in the wider universe, are all extremely relevant to understanding where humankind came from and where society is headed.