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司和刺激竞争性研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。 该奖项将支持收购扫描电子显微镜（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。 该设备将使多个WSU研究人员受益于地质学，生物学，化学，人类学和工程学研究，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，研究疏水复合材料以收获干旱地区的水蒸气，以及研究高盐环境中的矿物-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，研究人员打算对当地K-12学生和教育工作者进行仪器介导的推广。该设备将首先用于调查地下水和土壤中天然和人造胶体物质的运输和归宿，与现场设备部署在当地大学管理的自然保护区（Ninnescah保护区）。 扫描电镜将促进微米到亚微米天然和合成胶体与矿物表面之间相互作用的微米级成像，对理解吸附在天然有机材料上的金属污染物的地下运输和命运以及中和酸性矿井排水的潜在修复技术的研究具有重要意义。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.