Acquisition of a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer system at Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University

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This award will provide a new gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GCMS) instrument for sensitive analysis of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds at the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary sciences. It replaces a nineteen year old existing GCMS. This instrument is crucial for research by multiple PIs with a history of well-funded NSF projects, for training graduate students and postdocs, undergraduate students, as well as visiting scientists. All four PIs have ongoing research projects that require use of GCMS for identification and quantification of organic molecules extracted from geological and environmental samples. PIs and graduate students also actively participate in broader impact activities such as teaching at local GK-12 schools with diverse under-represented populations. The instrument to be purchased will be used to identify and quantify a wide range of important geological biomarkers including alkenones, sterols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, long chain alkyl-diols etc. These biomarkers in sediment cores provide critical insights to past temperature changes, human activities, natural fires and biological productivity. The existing GCMS instrument is three generations behind the state-of-the-art and has suffered from major decline in sensitivity and increasing maintenance costs, which has significantly affected training and research of students and postdocs. The new GCMS will overcome these problems and greatly enhance the research and training activities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.