EMSI: Chemical and Biological Interactions at Environmental Interfaces

该研究所将建立对环境界面和发生在这些界面上的重要化学和生物过程的基本分子水平的理解。研究所的工作将集中在了解常见金属氧化物表面的水结构、水与这些固体的相互作用、水合作用对固体表面结构的影响、固体-水界面双电层的性质、重金属和类金属离子在固体表面的吸附，以及微生物生物膜如何影响所有这些特征或过程。在这些界面上发生的过程的精确模型是理解溶质-衬底相互作用的关键。多学科团队将结合最先进的原位同步辐射光谱和散射、计算化学和分子基因组方法，在简化的模型系统中检查水和选定的金属和类金属污染物离子与环境重要的固体基质（有或没有微生物生物膜涂层）的相互作用。此外，将在这些基础研究的基础上，对含有砷和铅等污染物物种以及细菌的更复杂的自然系统进行平行的分子水平研究。在环境界面上发生的物理化学和微生物过程影响许多自然过程，如土壤材料的风化和土壤的形成，以及环境污染物的运输和归宿。一个由科学家和工程师组成的团队已经成立，以开发和应用新的实验和计算技术来研究环境界面。该研究所包括化学家、地球化学家、微生物学家、物理学家和土壤化学家，以确保基础研究也将为更多的应用研究提供信息。本研究的一些重要应用包括预测天然水生系统中重金属污染物的运输行为和潜在生物利用度以及有毒金属的环境修复。一群才华横溢、多元化的研究生、本科生和博士后将接受培训，在跨学科的环境中研究这些复杂的问题。这些科学家还将帮助培训初高中环境科学暑期研习班的科学教师，并将与科学作家互动，将他们的发现传播给更大的公众。环境分子科学研究所（Environmental Molecular Science Institute， EMSI）奖项授予由大学、工业和/或国家实验室科学家组成的跨学科团队，旨在从分子水平上提高对自然过程和人类活动在环境中产生的过程的基本理解。这些奖项的重点是具有互补研究兴趣的团队之间的合作研究，并为学生创造广泛的教育经验。斯坦福大学EMSI团队是由斯坦福大学、普林斯顿大学和阿拉斯加费尔班克斯大学的八名教师（由美国国家科学基金会化学和地球科学部资助）、劳伦斯伯克利国家实验室和太平洋西北国家实验室的三名研究人员（由美国能源部环境修复科学部资助）组成的伙伴关系。还有一位来自美国国家标准与技术研究院的研究员。其他合作者包括来自美国地质调查局的一名研究人员，来自几所法国大学的研究人员，以及四个工业合作伙伴（康宁公司，杜邦公司，skeleton Kinetics公司和Zyomyx公司）。NSF EMSI奖包括环境分子科学合作研究奖，编号为CHE-0089215。

This Institute will create fundamental molecular-level understanding of environmental interfaces and the important chemical and biological processes that occur at these interfaces. The Institute's efforts will focus on understanding the structure of water at the surfaces of common metal oxides, the interaction of water with these solids, the effect of hydration on the structure of solid surfaces, the nature of the electrical double layer at solid-water interfaces, the sorption of heavy metal and metalloid ions onto solid surfaces, and how microbial biofilms influence all of these features or processes. Accurate models of the processes occurring at these interfaces are key to understanding solute-substrate interactions. The multidisciplinary team will use a combination of state-of-the-art in situ synchrotron radiation-based spectroscopy and scattering, computational chemistry, and molecular genomic methods to examine the interaction of water and selected metal and metalloid contaminant ions with environmentally important solid substrates with and without microbial biofilm coatings in simplified model systems. In addition, parallel molecular-level studies of more complex natural systems containing contaminant species, such as arsenic and lead, as well as bacteria will be carried out, building on these fundamental studies.Physicochemical and microbiological processes taking place at environmental interfaces influence many natural processes, such as the weathering of earth materials and the formation of solils, as well as the transport and fate of environmental contaminants. A team of scientists and engineers has been assembled to develop and apply new experimental and computational techniques to studies of environmental interfaces. The Institute includes chemists, geochemists, microbiologists, physicists, and soil chemists to ensure that the basic research will also inform more applied research. Some of the important applications of this research include studies that will lead to predictions of the transport behavior and potential bioavailability of heavy metal contaminants in natural aquatic systems and environmental remediation of toxic metals. A cohort of talented and diverse graduate and undergraduate students and post-docs will be trained to work on these complex problems in an interdisciplinary setting. The researchers will also help train middle and high school science teachers in summer institutes on environmental science and will interact with science writers to disseminate their discoveries to the larger public.Environmental Molecular Science Institute (EMSI) awards are given to interdisciplinary teams of university, industrial, and/or national laboratory scientists working on problems aimed at increasing fundamental understanding of natural processes and processes resulting from human activities in the environment at the molecular level. The emphasis in these awards is on collaborative research among teams with complementary research interests and the creation of broad educational experiences for students. The Stanford EMSI team is a partnership among eight faculty at Stanford University, Princeton University, and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (funded by the National Science Foundation Divisions of Chemistry and Earth Sciences), three researchers drawn from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (funded by the Department of Energy Division of Environmental Remediation Sciences), and one researcher from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Additional collaborators include a researcher from the U.S. Geological Survey, researchers from several French universities, and four industrial partners (Corning, Inc., DuPont, Skeletal Kinetics, and Zyomyx). The NSF EMSI award incorporates a Collaborative Research in Environmental Molecular Science award, CHE-0089215.