EAR/IF: Acquisition of Bench Top SEM and Field Equipment for Research and Teaching

该项目由地球科学仪器和设施部和刺激竞争性研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该合同将支持购买一台扫描电子显微镜（SEM）和辅助现场设备，包括水质探空仪、数据记录仪和气象站，以支持威奇托州立大学的研究和研究培训。该设备将使华盛顿州立大学的多名研究人员在地质学、生物学、化学、人类学和工程学方面的研究中受益，这些研究与社会利益相关，包括减少和修复引入地下的有毒元素，研究在干旱地区收集水蒸气的疏水复合材料，以及研究高盐环境中矿物-微生物的相互作用。该仪器将支持研究生和本科生的体验式学习和研究培训，研究人员打算对当地K-12学生和教育工作者进行仪器媒介的推广。这些设备将首先用于调查地下水和土壤中天然和人造胶体材料的运输和命运，现场设备将部署在当地大学管理的自然保护区（尼尼斯卡保护区）。扫描电镜将促进微米到亚微米尺度的天然和合成胶体与矿物表面之间相互作用的成像，这对理解金属污染物吸附在天然有机材料上的地下运输和命运，以及中和酸性矿山排水的潜在修复技术的研究具有重要意义。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 project is jointly funded by the Division of Earth Sciences Instrumentation and Facilities and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). The award will support acquisition of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and ancillary field equipment including a water quality sonde, data logger, and a weather station, to support research and research training at Wichita State University. The equipment will benefit multiple WSU researchers for studies in geology, biology, chemistry, anthropology, and engineering with relevance to societal interests including reducing and remediating toxic elements introduced into the subsurface, studies of hydrophobic composite materials to harvest water vapor in arid regions, and studies of mineral-microbe interactions in hypersaline environments. The instrumentation will support graduate and undergraduate student experiential learning and research training and the investigators intend to conduct instrument-mediated outreach to local K-12 students and educators.The equipment will be used foremost for investigations of the transport and fate of natural and man-made colloidal materials in groundwaters and soils, with field equipment deployed at a local University managed nature preserve (the Ninnescah Reserve). The SEM will facilitate micron to sub-micron scale imaging of the interactions between natural and synthetic colloids with mineral surfaces with implications for understanding the subsurface transport and fate of metal contaminants adsorbed to natural organic materials and studies of potential remediation techniques for neutralizing acid mine drainage.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.