Acquisition of NMR and SIP instrumentation to support research and training of students from under-represented groups in near surface geophysics

这笔赠款用于购买两种最先进的科学仪器：一种核磁共振钻孔测井仪和一种光谱激发极化钻孔测井仪。这些仪器将用于加强和扩大纽瓦克罗格斯大学正在进行的地球科学和近地表地球物理学研究。该学院正在开发方法，以改善地下水的评价，监测与污染物修复相关的过程，并评估泥炭地的碳循环。这些设备还将用于招募、教育和培训近地表地球物理学专业的本科生和研究生，特别关注代表性不足的少数民族。这笔赠款支持购置两种最先进的科学仪器，以加强近地表地球物理钻孔测井调查：核磁共振（NMR）钻孔测井工具（Vista Clara Dart）和频谱激发极化（SIP）钻孔测井工具（Mount Sopris QL 40-SIP）。这些钻孔工具将由纽瓦克罗格斯大学的核磁共振和SIP领域的顶尖专家使用，以解决地球科学多个子领域的科学问题，包括：水文物理学、地球物理学和泥炭地的碳循环。在这些子领域中的每一个，钻孔仪器将允许近地表地球物理学研究人员在罗格斯大学，纽瓦克开发关键的理论关系在实验室中，并测试和应用它们来回答相关的科学问题在该领域。在水文物理学领域，仪器将用于支持正在进行的项目，以提高我们估计用于量化含水层和渗流区水流的参数的能力。在地球物理研究中，这些仪器将使我们能够将实验室测量升级到现场规模，实验室测量表明，NMR和SIP参数对与污染物降解过程相关的地球化学变化敏感。在泥炭地的碳循环领域，仪器的测量将提供急需的信息，以评估在泥炭地观察到的泥炭织物结构的变化如何调节气体释放到大气中。这些设备将可供学生在多个NSF支持的项目中使用，这些项目由罗格斯大学纽瓦克分校的教师负责，旨在增加代表性不足的少数民族学生在STEM领域的参与，包括花园州-路易斯斯托克斯少数民族参与联盟，罗格斯大学REU项目和GEOPATHS近地表生物物理学现场体验项目。研究生也将有充分的机会获得所需的仪器，这将使他们获得独特的技能，并扩大他们的研究兴趣，这将使他们在就业市场上更具竞争力。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This grant supports the purchase of two state-of-the-art scientific instruments: a nuclear magnetic resonance borehole logging tool and a spectral induced polarization borehole logging tool. These instruments will be used to enhance and expand ongoing research in the earth sciences and near surface geophysics at Rutgers University, Newark. The faculty are developing methods to improve the evaluation of groundwater, to monitor processes associated with contaminant remediation, and to evaluate carbon cycling in peatlands. The equipment will also be used to recruit, educate and train undergraduate and graduate students, specifically focusing on under-represented minorities, in near surface geophysics.This grant supports the acquisition of two state-of-the-art scientific instruments to enhance near surface geophysics borehole logging investigations: a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) borehole logging tool (Vista Clara Dart), and a spectral induced polarization (SIP) borehole logging tool (Mount Sopris QL40-SIP). These borehole tools will be used by leading experts in both NMR and SIP at Rutgers University, Newark to address scientific questions in multiple subfields of the earth sciences, including: hydrogeophysics, biogeophysics and carbon cycling in peatlands. Within each of these subfields, the borehole instrumentation will allow the near-surface geophysics researchers at Rutgers University, Newark to develop critical theoretical relationships in the laboratory, and test and apply them to answer pertinent scientific questions in the field. In the area of hydrogeophysics the instrumentation will be used to support ongoing projects to improve our ability to estimate parameters used to quantify the flow of water, both in aquifers and in the vadose zone. In biogeophysical research, these instruments will allow us to upscale laboratory measurements, which have shown that NMR and SIP parameters are sensitive to biogeochemical alterations associated with contaminant degradation processes, to the field scale. In the area of carbon cycling in the peatlands, measurements from the instrumentation will provide much needed information to assess how variations in peat fabric structure observed across peatlands regulate gas release to the atmosphere. The equipment will be available for use by students in multiple NSF supported programs that are run by faculty at Rutgers University, Newark and are aimed at increasing the participation of under-represented minority students in STEM fields, including the Garden State-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, the Rutgers University REU program, and the GEOPATHS near surface geophysics field experience program. Graduate students will also have full access to the requested instrumentation, which will allow them to obtain unique skill-set and expand their research interests, which will make them more competitive on the job market.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.