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

该奖项将为德克萨斯a&m大学构造物理中心John W. Handin实验岩石变形实验室提供一个新的全职技术职位，旨在加强实验岩石变形的研究和教育机会。实验岩石变形在评价许多涉及地球力学的科学和工程问题中起着至关重要的作用。这项为期5年的技术支持将使他们能够扩大测试能力，增加实验室发现的影响，并在研究、教育和推广机会方面扩大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等研究中最重要的问题，并将社会应用于理解和评估自然灾害。我们设想的新的教育和推广计划，在新的技术职位的推动下，将促进知识的转移，帮助培养批判性研究，以满足未来几年的社会需求，向学生介绍实验岩石和沉积物力学的STEM领域，并定义地球科学的职业道路。德克萨斯a&m大学构造物理中心的John W. Handin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，并且通过使用一系列设计用来模拟地球内部条件的变形设备，对理解岩石圈断层和剪切带的力学行为做出了贡献。然而，我们实验室的合作程度和来自其他机构以外的新用户对我们实验室的使用受到技术投资和有效安全地进行实验所需的培训的限制。新的实验室技术人员将提供实验室监督和访客培训，协助开发在线预备课程和数字数据存档。具体来说，新技术人员将从事以下项目：(1)提高实验室设施的效用和维护，(2)开发新的方法和技术，(3)为访问研究人员和学生开发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/推广到德克萨斯农工大学的其他项目和其他机构的地球科学家。(5)加强数字化实验数据和仪器技术图纸开放档案的数据管理。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.