Acquisition of a Scanning Electron Microscope for Environmental, Biological, and Materials Research and Education at UC Merced

该奖项将资助我们在加州大学默塞德分校（UCM）的新成像和显微镜设施（IMF）购买一台变压扫描电子显微镜（SEM），这是加州大学系统的第十个校区，也是加州大学近35年来的第一个新校区。UCM的学术课程强调环境科学与工程、材料科学与工程、定量生物学和系统生物学等主题领域的跨学科和多学科培训。扫描电子显微镜在环境、材料和生物科学的各种研究中作为固体表征的基础研究工具。一个多功能的SEM将立即解决UCM已经上船的大多数科学和工程学院的研究和教育需求。我们预计，随着UCM向学生开放并扩大其师资队伍，我们的用户基础将在资助期间显著增长。我们预计该仪器将满足未来5-10年显微镜基础研究和教学基础设施的需求，将有助于为我们的大学招募最优秀的新教师，并且由于显微镜的视觉特性，将为K-14和社区的推广工作做出巨大贡献。UCM的使命是服务于圣华金河谷快速增长的人口，主要是西班牙裔，有大量的移民和第一代人口，历史上在高等教育中代表性不足。我们设想这个SEM和国际货币基金组织作为一个新生的集中用户设施，将是支持UCM跨科学和工程的教学和研究任务的关键因素，并推动我们成长为一所成熟的研究型大学。

0420982O'DayThis award will fund the acquisition of a variable-pressure scanning electron microscope (SEM) for our new Imaging and Microscopy Facility (IMF) at the University of California, Merced (UCM), the tenth campus of the UC system and the first new UC campus in nearly 35 years. The academic program at UCM emphasizes interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary training in the thematic areas of environmental science and engineering, materials science and engineering, and quantitative and systems biology. Scanning electron microscopy serves as a basic research tool for the characterization of solids in a wide variety of studies in environmental, materials, and biological sciences. A versatile SEM will immediately address the research and education needs of a majority of the science and engineering faculty already on-board at UCM. We anticipate significant growth of our user base over the grant period as UCM opens for students and expands its faculty. We anticipate that this instrumentation will meet basic research and teaching infrastructure needs in microscopy for the next 5-10 years, will assist in recruiting the best new faculty to our university and, because of the visual nature of microscopy, contribute greatly to outreach efforts to K-14 and the community. A mission of UCM is to serve the rapidly growing population of the San Joaquin Valley, which is dominantly Hispanic, has a high immigrant and first-generation population, and is historically underrepresented in higher education. We envision this SEM and the IMF as a nascent centralized user facility that will be a key factor in supporting the teaching and research mission of UCM across science and engineering, and a driver for our growth into a mature research university.