Scanning Electron Microscope for Paleontology and Systematic Biology

该奖项提供资金协助购买现代扫描电子显微镜（SEM），用于俄克拉何马州自然历史博物馆（OMNH）的系统生物学和古生态学研究。此外，这笔资金将协助购买临界点干燥机和溅射涂层机，这是制备用于SEM研究的某些类型材料所需的物品。要购买的扫描电镜在标本室中以可变压力运行，因此可以在低压下对大型（例如恐龙牙齿）、太脆弱（例如富含三叶虫的页岩块）或太稀有而无法用常规扫描电镜制备技术研究的标本进行成像。此外，SEM能够在常规的高倍/高压模式下成像非常小的涂层样品（例如，花粉，花）。最初，该仪器将被教师/馆长、研究助理、研究生和本科生用于研究开花植物和异孢子蕨类植物、早白垩纪脊椎动物、下古生代和新生代蝙蝠以及其他小型哺乳动物的系统学和进化。显微镜的可用性将提高大学的研究和教育能力，并提高博物馆保存生物学，古生物学和考古学标本的能力，同时确保它们的研究可用性。

This award provides funds to assist in the purchase of a modern scanning electron microscope (SEM) for research in systematic biology and paleoecology at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (OMNH). In addition, the funds will assist in the purchase of a critical point dryer and a sputter coater, items required for the preparation of some types of materials for study with the SEM. The SEM to be purchased operates with variable pressure in the specimen chamber, and thus can image specimens at low pressure that are large (e.g., dinosaur teeth), too fragile (e.g., block of trilobite-rich shale), or too rare to be studied with conventional SEM preparation techniques. In addition, the SEM is capable of imaging very small, coated specimens (e.g., pollen, flowers) in the conventional high magnification/high pressure mode. Initially the instrument will be used by faculty/curators, research associates, graduate students, and undergraduates for studies of the systematics and evolution of flowering plants and heterosporous ferns, early Cretaceous vertebrates, Lower Paleozoic and Cenozoic bats, and other small mammals. The availability of the microscope will improve the research and educational capabilities of the University, and improve the museum's ability to preserve biological, paleontological, and archeological specimens while insuring their availability for research.