TS: The University of Texas at Arlington Luminescence Laboratory

该奖项支持在德克萨斯大学阿灵顿发光实验室（UTALL）工作五年的全职实验室技术人员。这名技术人员将为更广泛的地球科学界，特别是本科生和研究生，扩大使用发光测年服务的机会。技术员25%的时间用于学生培训，包括PI Brown研究小组的学生，以及他的地质年表课程的本科生和研究生，以及对外部访客的支持。UTALL是先进地球年代学、空间和系统（AGeS3）项目的实验室合作伙伴，该项目是美国国家科学基金会资助的一项倡议，为美国各地的研究生和代表性不足的个人提供微型资助机会，让他们与地球年代学实验室结对。UTALL收藏了一些在美国其他地方没有的独特乐器，因此对外部游客具有独特的价值。该技术人员还将为更广泛的科学界开发免费的发光热年代学分析软件；目前，这种类型的分析只在包括UTA在内的几所大学进行，部分原因是缺乏软件。PI Brown和技术人员将在新世界发光测年研讨会上展示现有的和开发的软件，这是一个由他们主持的发光测年专家年会。此外，技术人员将帮助维护研究设施，开发更容易获取的数据存档做法，并参与社区外展活动。该技术人员将加强UTALL的各种研究项目，其中大多数涉及对沉积物或基岩样品进行新颖的发光测量。这些项目中有18个目前正在计划中，其中包括研究生，其中许多人将访问UTALL，以及早期职业研究人员的pi。这些项目的结果将包括对通风侵蚀速率的首次测量，黄石国家公园热液爆炸沉积物的首次发光年龄，南加州构造块体的首次基于发光的挖掘历史，以及首次使用发光测量来限制山坡上的巨石粉碎。其他项目将确定全球几条断层带的古地震记录，以及格陵兰岛和南极洲冰盖退缩的记录。UTALL还拥有几个独特的分析功能。它是美国唯一一个专注于发光热年代学的发光测年实验室，它拥有美国唯一的红外光刺激发光岩板成像设备，用于测量阳光照射年龄或坚硬岩石表面的侵蚀率。UTALL将很快在一个发光测年实验室中安装第一个静水压力容器来测试信号重置，技术人员将帮助维护和运行该实验室。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 award supports a full-time laboratory technician for five years at the University of Texas at Arlington Luminescence Laboratory (UTALL). This technician will expand access to luminescence dating services for the broader Earth Science community, especially to undergraduate and graduate students. Twenty-five percent of the technician’s time is dedicated to student training, including students within PI Brown’s research group, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in his Geochronology course , and support to external visitors. The UTALL is a laboratory partner for the Advancing Geochronology Science, Spaces, and Systems (AGeS3) program, an NSF-funded initiative that provides micro-funding opportunities to pair graduate students and underrepresented individuals across the United States with geochronology laboratories. The UTALL houses several unique instruments that are unavailable elsewhere in the United States and are thus uniquely valuable to external visitors. The technician will also develop freely available software for luminescence thermochronology analysis for the broader scientific community; presently this type of analysis is only done at a few universities including UTA owing in part to a lack of software. PI Brown and the technician will demonstrate existing and developed software at the New World Luminescence Dating Workshop, an annual meeting of luminescence dating specialists, which they will host. Additionally, the technician would help maintain research facilities, develop more accessible data archiving practices, and engage in community outreach activities.The technician will enhance a variety of research projects at the UTALL, the majority of which involve novel luminescence measurements of sediment or bedrock samples. Most of these projects, 18 currently planned, include graduate students, many of whom will visit the UTALL, and PIs who are early career researchers. Results from these projects will include the first measurements of ventifact erosion rates, the first luminescence ages of hydrothermal explosion deposits in Yellowstone National Park, the first luminescence-based exhumation histories of tectonic blocks in Southern California, and the first use of luminescence measurements to constrain boulder comminution on hillslopes. Other projects will determine paleoseismic records along several fault strands globally and records of ice sheet retreat in Greenland and Antarctica. The UTALL also hosts several unique analytical capabilities. It is the only US luminescence dating laboratory with a focus on luminescence thermochronology, it hosts the only infrared photo-stimulated luminescence rock slab imaging device in the US, which is used to measure sunlight exposure ages or erosion rates of hard rock surfaces. UTALL will soon host the first hydrostatic pressure vessel to test signal resetting within a luminescence dating laboratory, which the technician will help maintain and run.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.