Facility Support: Institute for Rock Magnetism

0732473 Banerjee这笔赠款支持明尼苏达大学岩石磁性研究所（Institute for Rock Magnetism）继续资助三年。 该中心的目标包括：1）为地球科学研究界提供一整套敏感仪器，以详细研究天然物质的磁性; 2）为访问学者提供有效使用设施所需的支持，包括技术、教育和后勤支持;（3）调整物理学和材料科学的方法和技术，并开发新方法，利用磁性测量数据来确定复杂天然样品的特征，并解决地球科学家特别感兴趣的问题; 4）通过举办研讨会和会议，并通过在这些领域保持积极的（和单独资助的）研究计划，在扩大和改进磁分析在地质和生物研究中的应用方面发挥催化剂的作用。 地球物理研究所的分析和技术能力促进了研究，包括对地球磁场强度变化的高分辨率研究，以阐明围绕地球发电机起源的基本问题，微生物纳米相磁性矿物特性的表征，矿物磁化起源的基础研究和磁性矿物对温度环境扰动的反应，外加磁场 该中心支持研究生和博士后学生在国家的最先进的岩石和古地磁分析技术的培训，并通过访问学者计划和两年一度的会议系列促进国际合作。

0732473BanerjeeThis grant supports a three year continuation of funding for the Institute for Rock Magnetism (IRM) at the University of Minnesota. The goals of the IRM include: 1) providing the geoscience research community with access to a full suite of sensitive instrumentation for detailed study of magnetic properties of natural materials; 2) providing visiting scholars with the support necessary to use the facilities effectively, including technical, educational, and logistical components of support; 3) adapting methods and techniques from physics and materials science, as well as developing new methods, for using magnetic measurement data to characterize complex natural samples and to address questions of specific interest to geoscientists; and; 4) serving as a catalyst in widening and improving the applications of magnetic analysis in geological and biological studies, by holding workshops and conferences, and by maintaining active (and separately funded) research programs in those areas. Research facilitated by the analytical and technical capabilities of the IRM includes high resolution studies of variability in the intensity of the Earth's magnetic field in order to elucidate fundamental questions surrounding the origin of the geodynamo, characterization of the properties of microbial nanophase magnetic minerals, and fundamental studies of the origin of magnetization in minerals and the behavior of magnetic minerals in response to environmental perturbations in temperature and applied magnetic fields. The IRM supports the training of graduate and postdoctoral students in state-of-the-art rock and paleomagnetic analysis techniques and facilitates international collaborations through the Visiting Fellows program and a biennial conference series.***