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已建立的激励竞争性研究计划(EPSCoR)共同资助。该合同将支持购买扫描电子显微镜(SEM)和辅助现场设备，包括水质探测仪、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。这些设备将使华盛顿大学的多名研究人员受益，从事与社会利益相关的地质学、生物学、化学、人类学和工程学研究，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，以及研究高盐度环境中的矿物-微生物相互作用。该仪器将支持研究生和本科生的体验式学习和研究培训，调查人员打算通过仪器向当地的K-12学生和教育工作者进行宣传。这些设备将主要用于调查天然和人造胶体材料在地下水和土壤中的运输和命运，现场设备部署在当地大学管理的自然保护区(宁尼斯卡保护区)。扫描电子显微镜将有助于对天然和合成胶体与矿物表面之间的相互作用进行微米到亚微米级的成像，这将有助于了解吸附在天然有机材料上的金属污染物的地下传输和归宿，以及研究中和酸性矿山废水的潜在补救技术。该奖项反映了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.