Support for the Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility (NENIMF)

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This award provides support for the Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility (NENIMF) to operate as a multi-user facility serving the geoscience community. Since January 2010, the facility has accommodated sixty-six users from thirty-three different institutions. The analytical capabilities of the NENIMF provide a unique resource to the geoscience community in two key areas where we have a well-established track record: determination of magmatic volatile abundances in silicate glasses, and analysis of biogenic carbonates as records of climate change and its impacts on marine organisms. NENIMF users have also worked on a range of topics that include Zr in rutile geospeedometry, Ti diffusion in quartz, and U-Th-Pb dating of monazite and zircon. Analytical protocols and standard materials for these and many other types of SIMS applications are available at the NENIMF. Discovery and understanding are advanced while promoting teaching, training, and learning and participation of underrepresented groups is broadened through the involvement of undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs. Involvement of young scientists in SIMS-based research is encouraged through short-courses held once each year. Our exhibits at Fall AGU and Goldschmidt conferences introduce researchers in many different fields to the analytical capabilities of SIMS. Infrastructure for research and education are enhanced through making both our existing analytical platforms, and those to be developed by the NENIMF personnel, available to scientists and students from diverse disciplines. Research results are disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding through an average of 15 publications per year that result from use of the NENIMF.