MRI-R2: Acquisition of a 213 nm UV Laser Ablation System to Advance Micro Spatial Trace Element Research and Research Training Across Fields

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Support from the NSF MRI-R2 program has allowed the acquisition and installation of a 213 nm Ultra Violet laser ablation (LA) system to advance elemental analysis research and training across the Hampshire College curriculum. The system would enable research and training in diverse projects, such as the rapid determination of toxic trace metals in contaminated soils, bio-imaging of metal-based nanoparticles uptake by plants roots or using elemental information from teeth to help determine the natal homes of African slaves from the New York African Burial Ground as well as chronologically-archived changes in elemental nutrition and pollution. The new LA unit will facilitate the research programs of core faculty in chemistry, biology, and biological anthropology, and their undergraduate students at Hampshire College. Also, the instrument will be used in class research projects in analytical chemistry, environmental science, anthropology, plant physiology, and geology. Furthermore, the instrument will be made available to faculty members in the Five College consortium and for international research collaborations such as investigation of potential arsenic and lead exposure in hair and teeth of ancient Chinchorro mummies of Chile. The interdisciplinary research projects enabled by the LA system will significantly broaden the scope and capability of faculty-student research and teaching in the classrooms, as well as benefit the general public through analytical advances in identification and monitoring of past and present toxic trace metal pollution events, spatial and depth elemental imaging of biological tissues, and new methods leading to rapid determination of toxic metal contaminants at contaminated sites. Data and findings from research enabled by these instruments will be published in peer-reviewed journals, and presented by students and faculty at regional and national meetings.