Laboratory Technician Support: National sample preparation facility for broadening participation, research, and hands-on research training in cosmogenic nuclide studies

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This project transforms an established, state-of-the-art, high-throughput, geologic dating laboratory at the University of Vermont into a national facility open for use by the broader science community. It will provide both intellectual resources and a venue for consistent, reliable, high-quality, and safety-focused preparation of samples using a hands-on model that integrates research and research training. Over the past several decades, the use of these nuclides in Earth Science has increased rapidly; however, sample preparation remains tedious, difficult, and hazardous, requiring strong acids and complicated and expensive clean laboratory facilities and expertise that are not readily available. The approach of this facility is cost-effective because it relies on existing physical and intellectual infrastructure and builds on demonstrated research and research training successes. Working closely with experts, the facility staff will broaden participation and build long-term relationships by proactively engaging students, faculty, and administrators at both undergraduate institutions and graduate institutions serving communities underrepresented in STEM. The facility will use collaborative outreach activities including campus visits and a seed grant program to bring minority students and their faculty mentors to the laboratoryThis is a new approach aimed at broadening participation in the rapidly expanding field of cosmogenic isotope geoscience by opening a successful cosmogenic geochemistry laboratory to the broader community. Building upon tested sample-processing and training protocols, we will facilitate research and research training by increasing access to 10Be and 26Al sample preparation. Because of limited laboratory availability, the cosmogenic nuclide community has remained small. Providing a national sample preparation facility will catalyze the inclusion of new and different scientists, increasing the number and diversity of projects involving these isotopes - a catalyst for transformative research. Supporting a community facility for sample processing and research training has numerous different broader impacts. 1) It directly addresses a current bottleneck in cosmogenic nuclide studies: the extraction of 10Be and 26Al from rock, soil, and sediment that precedes isotopic measurement. 2) It broadens participation by providing open access to a state-of-the-art processing facility for the many students and faculty who do not have such a facility at their home institutions. 3) The outreach program, supported by the experience of Semken and Whittaker, goes directly to faculty and students at institutions serving minority communities and the seed grant program brings faculty/student teams from Historically Black Colleges and Universities as well as Tribal Colleges to the laboratory for meaningful collaboration and hands-on training. 4) Technician support will provide for research training in isotopic clean lab methods for students, researchers, faculty, and young investigators in a variety of geoscience disciplines through lab residencies, lab consultancies, a yearly training course for those wishing to adopt these methods or start a similar laboratory.