Technical Support for the New MC-ICP-MS Laboratory at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

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EAR-0348948JohnsonThis award will support a technician who will play a key role in the new NSF-funded multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) facility at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The facility will be used to make high-precision isotope ratio measurements, which are critical in NSF-supported research in several areas of Geology, Anthropology, and Environmental Chemistry at UIUC. Specific applications of the instrument include:n Tracing chemical reactions involving potentially toxic selenium, chromium, and mercury in ground water and surface watern Revealing the processes through which magmas are generated and migrate toward the earth's surfacen Determining ages of earth materials that hold records of climate change n Determining ages of mountain-building events and the processes involved in themn Tracing migration of human ancestors and archaeological artifacts The technician will be the central person charged with coordinating the proper operation and efficient use of the instrument, and will enable the facility to serve a large and highly diverse community of students and researchers. The MC-ICP-MS will be difficult to run, but with assistance in setup and oversight afforded by a full-time technician, less experienced users can analyze their own samples successfully. The proposed technician will be responsible for getting users started, configuring the instrument for some users, evaluating and maintaining the stability of the instrument, performing maintenance and calibration, advising and assisting outside users with sample preparation, and performing a limited number of routine analyses for outside users who cannot analyze their own samples. The efforts of the technician will greatly increase the educational impact of the instrument, allowing a wider range of users hands-on access to the instrument and enabling its use in classes. Graduate students and other researchers from outside the P.I.s' groups will greatly benefit from technical support that will enable them to obtain high-quality analyses with limited training. Undergraduate research will be similarly reliant on the efforts of the technician, to an even greater extent.