CFS (Track III): High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Laboratory

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This award will continue NSF support of the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography Facility (UTCT) as a community facility supporting geoscience research. Computed tomography (CT) is ideally suited for many geoscience applications, as it nondestructively creates 3D image data of the interiors of rocks, fossils, meteorites and other materials. Successful application of this technique requires both advanced instrumentation and experienced operators to optimize data acquisition and processing, and the ability to design and implement rigorous and well-targeted 3D data analysis strategies. UTCT serves both as a source of high-quality data for investigators without access to CT instrumentation, and as a repository of experience and expertise in all aspects of CT data acquisition and analysis, both through individual consultation and collaboration and by teaching short courses. Advances in CT data acquisition, processing, and analysis developed at UTCT have also been used in many other fields. UTCT also provides leadership in management and curation of CT data sets, through a long-term investment in the DIGIMORPH digital library at UTCT, and community activity through the Tomography for Scientific Advancement, North America (ToScANA) symposium series. Individual and collective efforts by UTCT staff support BAJEDI goals, including aiding recruitment of and mentoring research by members of historically under-represented groups.This project will support roughly 25% of UTCT operating expenses for the next three years, including staff, equipment maintenance, and computing infrastructure, and replacing a no-longer-repairable microfocal X-ray source. Over the previous four years of facility support, UTCT research advanced a wide range of fronts while continuing to provide high-quality service, all while adjusting to the many difficulties imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The lab has upgraded much of the instrumentation, and created, improved, and demonstrated several new 3D measurement methodologies. From 2018 through February 2022 UTCT data supported 330 peer-reviewed publications and 43 theses and dissertations. UTCT served 196 principal investigators over this period, most of them earth scientists, with 58% from outside the University of Texas. The facility expanded its short courses in HRXCT data acquisition, visualization, and quantification, and adapted them to on-line delivery to compensate for COVID-19. In 2019 and 2021 the facility hosted two more instances of the ToScANA symposium, the second on-line due to the pandemic, with approximately 100 attendees each time representing a wide range of disciplines, and the facility will host the 2023 symposium in Austin. These symposia have also served as a rallying point for North American tomography community efforts.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.