Facility Support: Institute for Rock Magnetism

1339505 Moskowitz这笔赠款支持明尼苏达大学岩石磁性研究所(IRM)三年的持续资助。IRM的目标包括：1)向地球科学研究界提供一整套灵敏的仪器，用于详细研究天然材料的磁性；2)为访问学者提供有效使用这些设施所需的支持，包括技术、教育和后勤支持部分；3)采用物理学和材料科学的方法和技术，以及开发新的方法，利用磁性测量数据来表征复杂的自然样品，并解决地球科学家特别感兴趣的问题；以及4)通过举办研讨会和会议，以及在这些领域保持积极的(和单独资助的)研究计划，作为扩大和改进磁分析在地质和生物研究中的应用的催化剂。由IRM的分析和技术能力推动的研究包括高分辨率的地球磁场强度变异性研究，以阐明围绕地球发电机起源的基本问题，微生物纳米相磁性矿物的性质表征，以及矿物中磁化的起源和磁性矿物对温度和外加磁场中的环境扰动的响应行为的基础研究。IRM支持对研究生和博士后进行最先进的岩石和古地磁分析技术的培训，并通过访问学者计划和两年一次的系列会议促进国际合作。

1339505 MoskowitzThis grant supports a three year continuation of funding for the Institute for Rock Magnetism (IRM) at the University of Minnesota. The goals of the IRM include: 1) providing the geoscience research community with access to a full suite of sensitive instrumentation for detailed study of magnetic properties of natural materials; 2) providing visiting scholars with the support necessary to use the facilities effectively, including technical, educational, and logistical components of support; 3) adapting methods and techniques from physics and materials science, as well as developing new methods, for using magnetic measurement data to characterize complex natural samples and to address questions of specific interest to geoscientists; and; 4) serving as a catalyst in widening and improving the applications of magnetic analysis in geological and biological studies, by holding workshops and conferences, and by maintaining active (and separately funded) research programs in those areas. Research facilitated by the analytical and technical capabilities of the IRM includes high resolution studies of variability in the intensity of the Earth?s magnetic field in order to elucidate fundamental questions surrounding the origin of the geodynamo, characterization of the properties of microbial nanophase magnetic minerals, and fundamental studies of the origin of magnetization in minerals and the behavior of magnetic minerals in response to environmental perturbations in temperature and applied magnetic fields. The IRM supports the training of graduate and postdoctoral students in state-of-the-art rock and paleomagnetic analysis techniques and facilitates international collaborations through the Visiting Fellows program and a biennial conference series.***