Laboratory Technician Support: Enhancing Access to the John W. Handin Laboratory for Experimental Rock Deformation

该奖项将支持德州农工大学构造物理中心约翰·W·汉丁实验岩石变形实验室的一个新的全职技术职位，目的是加强实验岩石变形方面的研究和教育机会。实验岩石变形在评估许多涉及地球力学的科学和工程问题中起到了至关重要的作用。为期五年的技术人员支持将使他们能够扩大他们的测试能力，增加实验室发现的影响，并在研究、教育和外联机会方面拓宽和多样化实验室用户和访客。改进的技术支持将促进新的合作，以解决我们在地震力学、板块构造和地球岩石圈特征研究中最重要的问题，以及在理解和评估自然灾害方面的社会应用。我们设想的新的教育和推广计划，将在新的技术职位的推动下，促进知识的转移，帮助培养满足未来社会需求的批判性研究，向学生介绍STEM实验岩石和沉积物力学领域，并确定地球科学的职业道路。德克萨斯农工大学构造物理中心的约翰·W·汉丁实验岩石变形实验室在实验岩石变形方面有着悠久的教育和研究历史，通过利用一系列旨在模拟地球内部条件的变形仪器，为了解岩石圈断层和剪切带的力学行为做出了贡献。然而，计划之外的新用户和来自其他机构的新用户合作和使用我们实验室的程度受到了有效和安全地执行实验所需的技术投资和培训的限制。新的实验室技术员将对来访者进行实验室监督和培训，协助开发在线预科课程和数字数据存档。具体地说，新技术人员将参与以下项目：(1)加强实验室设施的使用和维护，(2)开发新方法和技术，(3)帮助为来访的研究人员和学生开发关于岩石变形实验方法的在线培训课程，(4)帮助将实验岩石变形的教育/外展扩展到德克萨斯A&Amp的其他项目。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行了评估，认为值得支持。

This award will support a new full-time technical position in the John W. Handin Laboratory for Experimental Rock Deformation at the Center for Tectonophysics, Texas A&M University, with the goal of enhancing research and education opportunities in experimental rock deformation. Experimental rock deformation has played a crucial role in evaluating many scientific and engineering problems that involve mechanics of the Earth. The five-year technician support will let them expand their testing capabilities, increase the impact of laboratory discoveries, and broaden and diversify laboratory users and visitors in research, education and outreach opportunities. Improved technical support will facilitate new collaborations to tackle the most significant problems of our research of earthquake mechanics, plate tectonics, and the character of the Earth's lithosphere, with societal applications to understanding and evaluating natural hazards. The new education and outreach program we envision, facilitated with the new technical position, will advance the transfer of knowledge, help foster critical research to meet the needs of society in the years to come, introduce students to the STEM fields of experimental rock and sediment mechanics, and define career paths in the Earth Sciences. The John W. Handin Laboratory for Experimental Rock Deformation at the Center for Tectonophysics, Texas A&M University has a long history of education and research in experimental rock deformation, and has contributed to understanding the mechanical behavior of lithospheric faults and shear zones by making use of a wide array of deformation apparatus designed to simulate conditions of the Earth's interior. However, the extent of collaboration and use of our laboratory by new users outside their program and from other institutions has been limited by the technical investment and training needed to perform experiments effectively and safely. The new laboratory technician will provide laboratory oversight and training of visitors, assist in development of online preparatory courses, and digital data archiving. Specifically, the new technician will be engaged in projects to (1) enhance utility and maintenance of laboratory facilities, (2) develop new methods and technology, (3) help develop on-line training courses on experimental methods of rock deformation for visiting researchers and students, (4) help expand education/outreach of experimental rock deformation to other programs at Texas A&M and to geoscientists at other institutions, and (5) enhance data management of open-access archives of digital experimental data and technical drawings of apparatus.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.