Laboratory Support Award: Optical Emission Spectrometer for the Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。T. Douglas Price和James H. Burton将利用美国国家科学基金会的资助，替换威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校考古化学实验室的主要科学仪器。该实验室将购买一台新的、最先进的电感耦合等离子体发射光谱仪（ICP-OES）。ICP光谱学在实验室中具有很高的生产力，并负责许多已建立的和有前途的科学家的研究活动。内部分析仪器在基础研究和新科学家的培训中是必不可少的。除了仪器之外，该合同还将为实验室的一些改造提供资金，以适应新仪器的安装和设施的升级。自1988年收购以来，考古化学实验室已经产生了仪器数据，导致实验室工作人员和学生在编辑卷，科学文献，书籍，论文和学位论文中出版了数百种出版物。这些结果以及学生和工作人员在地方、国家和国际场所的演讲产生了许多其他次要出版物。实验室里的科学仪器也是考古化学教学活动的主要工具，既供课堂使用，也供威斯康星大学的学生、其他大学的学生、高中生、国内外其他机构的各种学者和专业同事进行许多独立研究。该实验室以前的ICP光谱仪对于该设施成为国际公认的考古化学研究中心至关重要。新仪器将使该中心能够维持和扩大考古化学实验室的工作。美国国家科学基金会的支持将允许对各种各样的考古材料和人类学遗骸进行持续调查，并开发新的调查方法。考古化学是一个非常令人兴奋的领域，新方法和新发现通过产生直到最近才被认为不为人知的信息，为人类的过去打开了一扇窗和一扇门。未来考古学的大部分重大发现将来自实验室。例如，对食物链中微量元素的研究以及随后的同位素研究产生了研究现代和史前动物流动性和饮食的新方法，这些方法已被证明在动物生态学等其他领域很有用。除传统研究外，该小组还将探索和发展新的调查分析方法，其成果无法先验地进行评估，但过去二十年的记录表明，其价值是不可估量的。科学仪器是这类研究成功的关键。实验室的基础研究和培养未来的科学家是这一领域成长和发展的主要目标。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Drs. T. Douglas Price and James H. Burton will use support from the National Science Foundation to replace the primary scientific instrument in the Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The lab will purchase a new, state-of-the-art Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). ICP spectroscopy has been highly productive in the laboratory and responsible for the research activities of many established, as well as promising, scientists. An in-house analytical instrument is essential in basic research and the training of new scientists. In addition to the instrument, the award will provide for some remodeling of the laboratory to accommodate the installation of the new instrument and upgrade the facility. Since its acquisition in 1988, the Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry has produced instrumental data that has resulted in hundreds of publications by laboratory staff and students in edited volumes, scientific literature, and as books, theses, and dissertations. Numerous other secondary publications have been generated by these results as well as presentations by students and staff at local, national, and international venues. The scientific instruments in the lab have also been the principal tools for instructional activity in archaeological chemistry, both for classroom use and for many independent studies by students at the University of Wisconsin, students from other universities, high-school students, and various scholars and professional colleagues from other institutions both here and abroad. The previous ICP spectrometer in the lab was essential for the establishment of the facility as an internationally recognized center for the study of archaeological chemistry. The new instrument should allow the center to maintain and expand the efforts of the Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry.The National Science Foundation support will allow continued investigation of a wide variety of archaeological materials and anthropological remains and to develop new methods of inquiry. Archaeological chemistry is an exceptionally exciting field where new methods and new discoveries are opening windows and doors on the human past by producing information thought unknowable until recently. Most of the major future discoveries in archaeology will come from laboratories. Studies of trace elements in food chains, and subsequent isotope studies, for example, have generated new approaches of study of both modern and prehistoric animal mobility and diet, approaches that have proven useful in other fields such as animal ecology. In addition to traditional research, the team will explore and develop new analytical methods of inquiry, the fruits of which cannot be assessed a priori, but the track record of the past two decades indicates that their value is inestimable. Scientific instrumentation is the key to success in such investigations. Basic research in laboratories and the training of future scientists are primary goals in the growth and development of this field.