Acquisition of a Rheometer for Interdisciplinary Rheology Research at New Mexico State University

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This is a small equipment proposal to purchase a rheometer (Discovery Series HR-2). Obtaining this instrument will advance emerging and established research at New Mexico State University (NMSU). The availability of a high-end instrument that can give accurate measurements for fluids that are more complex than water (e.g., polymers, pastes, biological fluids, suspensions etc.) will foster a rheology-centered community among the materials engineering research strengths at NMSU, and form the core of a multidisciplinary "Viscoelastic Measurement Laboratory?. Using the instrument will also support a number of research faculty who are working between the disciplines of fluid dynamics of complex fluids, chemistry, biological sciences, and engineering. NMSU is a Hispanic-serving Institution; therefore, the number of underrepresented minorities in STEM is quite large. Upon installing the instrument for use in research, the co-PIs will implement educational activities for undergraduates and graduate students with particular engagement of underrepresented minorities. The rheometer will be used in a variety of undergraduate and graduate classes. The equipment will also be used to provide technical workshops for graduate students through the NMSU NIH RISE program, reach out to the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, and to improve the interaction of faculty members with local industries in food processing, petrochemicals, refinery, plastics, and composites manufacturing - all of which impact regional economy. The departments to be directly influenced include chemical engineering, food science and technology, chemistry and biochemistry, and biology. The research projects to be studied with the rheometer include (i) the dynamics of polymer chains during asymmetric phase separation, which is controlled by viscoelasticity, (ii) rheology of cells sorted through flow cytometry, (iii) the rheology of healthy and cancerous laboratory-cultured cells, (iv) rheology of mechanosensory organs and engineered neural cultures, and (v) interfacial rheology of a new emulsifier for food products derived from cotton seed meal.