Collaborative Research: Research Infrastructure: CFS (Track III) Cosmogenic Nuclides in Earth Science Research: Allied facilities for sample preparation, analysis, and training

加速器质谱（AMS）是一种用于测量宇宙射线与岩石、土壤和地球大气相互作用时产生的极其罕见的物质的技术。利用这些数据，科学家可以确定有可能影响人类活动的事件发生的时间。一些灾难性的变化，如洪水或地震，发生在很短的时间尺度上，而其他的，如景观侵蚀和冰盖的生长和消亡，发生在更长的时间尺度上，数千年到数百万年。这些变化直接影响到全世界人口的福利。该奖项为普渡大学稀有同位素测量实验室（PRIME实验室）和佛蒙特大学（UVM）社区宇宙成因设施提供了新的资助。这两个设施将合作建立一个全国性的多用户设施，专门用于使用加速器质谱法测量宇宙产生的放射性核素。这样一来，这个联合机构就可以培训来自美国数十所大学的学生和研究人员，而这些大学既没有这些能力，也没有资金来培养这些能力。在佛蒙特大学，学生学习如何对样品进行物理和化学制备，然后在PRIME实验室AMS上参与样品的测量。PRIME实验室和佛蒙特大学的学生、教师和专业人员之间的互动促进了与地质学家、化学家和物理学家的互动，提供了一个独特的机会，扩大了特定研究项目之外的教育机会。该奖项的一个重要组成部分是向代表性不足的社区伸出援手，这将为学生提供参与地质实地工作、实验室指导和接触核物理测量技术的实践机会。合作设施的目标是为地球科学社区提供宇宙起源和其他长寿命放射性核素的相关样品制备，化学提取和AMS测量。该提案的第一个目标是为美国国家科学基金会和地球科学社区继续这种样品制备和测量能力。自20世纪90年代初以来，PRIME实验室一直为地球科学界提供AMS测量。PRIME实验室提供陆地地质样品中10Be， 14C, 26Al， 36Cl和129I的测量。PRIME实验室每年例行地为研究人员（包括NSF社区的研究人员）测量数千个未知数，但实验室既不能跟上需求，也不能充分培训足够的“下一代”宇宙核素研究人员。因此，该奖项的一个重要目标是为地球科学界建立额外的样品制备设施。PRIME实验室的AMS测量能力与UVM的样品制备设施相结合，其价值超出了两个设施的组合。结合这些小组使我们能够探索技术，使设施能够简化一些过程，识别宇宙核素应用中的潜在问题，为培训下一代宇宙核素研究人员提供独特的机会，并开发下一代测量技术和应用。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。

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is a technique used to measure exceedingly rare materials produced as cosmic rays interact with rocks, soil, and Earth’s atmosphere. Using these data, scientists can determine the timing of events that have the potential to impact human endeavors. Some catastrophic changes, like floods or earthquakes, occur over short time-scales, while others, landscape erosion and the growth and demise of ice sheets, occur over longer time-scales, thousands to millions of years. These changes directly impact the welfare of human populations world-wide. This award renews funding for the Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory (PRIME Lab) and the University of Vermont (UVM) Community Cosmogenic Facility. These two facilities will collaborate to produce a national, multi-user facility dedicated to the measurement of cosmogenic radionuclides using accelerator mass spectrometry. Doing so allows the combined facility to train students and researchers from dozens of universities within the US that do not have these capabilities or the funds to create them. At the University of Vermont, students learn how to perform the physical and chemical preparation of samples and then participate in the measurement of their samples on the PRIME Lab AMS. The interaction between students, faculty, and professional staff at PRIME Lab and University of Vermont facilitates interaction with geologists, chemists, and physicists, providing a unique opportunity to expand the educational opportunity beyond the focus of specific research projects. An essential component of this award is outreach to underrepresented communities, which will provide students hands-on opportunities to participate in geologic field work, laboratory instruction, and exposure to nuclear physics measurement techniques.The collaborative facility goals are to provide allied sample preparation, chemical extraction, and AMS measurements of cosmogenic and other long-lived radionuclides to the geoscience community. The first goal of this proposal is the continuance of this sample preparation and measurement capability for the NSF and geoscience community. PRIME Lab has provided AMS measurements for the geoscience community since the early 1990’s. PRIME Lab provides measurements of 10Be, 14C, 26Al, 36Cl, and 129I in terrestrial geologic samples. PRIME Lab routinely measures thousands of unknowns annually for researchers, including those in the NSF community, but the laboratory can neither keep pace with demand and adequately train enough “next-generation” cosmogenic nuclides researchers. Accordingly, a significant goal of this award is the establishment of additional sample preparation facilities for the geoscience community. The combination of the AMS measurement capabilities at PRIME Lab with the sample preparation facilities at UVM has value beyond just the combination of two facilities. Combining the groups enables us to explore techniques that allow the facility to streamline some of the processes, identify potential problems in the application of cosmogenic nuclides, allow for unique opportunities to train the next generation of cosmogenic nuclide researchers, and develop next-generation measurement techniques and applications.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.