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 Williams博士和他的同事们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的目标是整合地球、行星和人类学科学中基于收藏和原创的实地研究。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、相互作用和交流的考古学；2)推动菲尔德博物馆世界著名自然历史藏品的物质保护事业；3)通过分析陨石来研究小行星和行星的形成和演化；以及4)通过分析大洋和大陆火山岩来研究地幔和地壳中的岩浆作用。EAL将配备一个带有激光烧蚀系统的四极感应耦合等离子质谱仪，它将能够以最小的破坏性影响分析材料的次要和微量元素，以及一个带有能量色散X射线光谱仪的大腔体扫描电子显微镜，用于结构成像、元素图谱以及对样品和文物的主要和次要元素成分进行无损识别。这一设施向所有博物馆研究人员以及来自附近大学的合作教职员工和学生开放，将使菲尔德博物馆成为伊利诺伊州北部领先的自然历史材料分析中心。此外，它还将使博物馆能够更充分地利用其人类学、地质学/古生物学、动物学和植物学藏品中存储的化学和结构信息。EAL支持的项目整合了人类学、地球和行星科学方面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百万参观者。这些项目吸收了来自不同背景的学者，EAL将成为芝加哥地区许多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来教授使用EAL的课程，EAL将作为芝加哥学术界学生的研究工具。最后，这项关于文化互动和交流的研究结果，地球及其上的生命的演化，以及地球在更广阔的宇宙中的位置，都与理解人类从哪里来，社会向何处去有着极其重要的关系。

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.