Facility Suppport: Phase Two of a NSF/Boston University partnership ensuring long-term technician support for the BU TIMS Facility

该奖项扩展了NSF/波士顿大学（BU）的合作伙伴关系，以确保为地球科学系的BU TIMS设施提供技术支持。该合同为BU TIMS设施经理提供了两年的资金，在此之后，波士顿大学将保证在设施的生产生命周期内继续提供技术支持。该设施包括一个Triton TIMS（热电离质谱仪），一个新波微磨设备，以及一个新装修的1000平方英尺的洁净实验室，其中包括300平方英尺的全新空间，专门用于超净TIMS相关的样品制备。我们专注于制备和分析非常小的样品，用于同位素分析，特别是钕和锶。TIMS设施是地球科学系地球化学研究的核心，支持四个BU pi的nsf资助研究，涵盖构造和变质作用，火成岩和地幔过程，风化和地球表面过程，地球化学古海洋学和古气候学。作为一个开放的区域同位素分析设施，TIMS设施从地球化学界吸引了非常大的外部用户群。近50%的现场用户群来自波士顿大学外部（迄今为止来自其他10个机构），主要涉及nsf资助的研究项目。此外，技术支持职位可以为大量研究生和本科生提供TIMS同位素地球化学分析的实践培训。超过50%的用户是学生（研究生和本科生），其中大部分是技术人员？美国的努力已经投入到学生培训上。因此，技术人员使我们能够忠于我们的使命，维持卓越的研究实验室，同时培养学生成为下一代同位素地球化学家。通过我们的网站、会议演示和出版物，我们积极宣传实验室的可用性，并寻求与更广泛的地球化学社区分享其能力和方法。

This award extends an NSF/Boston University (BU) partnership to ensure technician support for the BU TIMS Facility in the Department of Earth Sciences. The award provides two years of funding for the BU TIMS Facility Manager after which time Boston University will guarantee continuation of technical support for the productive lifetime of the Facility. The Facility includes a Triton TIMS (Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer), a New Wave MicroMill device, and a newly renovated 1000 ft2 clean lab including 300 ft2 of brand new space explicitly designed for ultra-clean TIMS related sample preparation. We specialize in the preparation and analysis of very small samples for isotopic analysis, in particular for Neodymium and Strontium. The TIMS Facility is at the heart of geochemical research in the Department of Earth Sciences supporting the four BU PIs' NSF-funded research spanning tectonics and metamorphism, igneous and mantle processes, weathering and earth surface processes, geochemical paleoceanography, and paleoclimatology. As an open regional facility for isotopic analysis, the TIMS Facility draws a very large external userbase from the geochemical community. Almost 50% of the on-site userbase is external to Boston University (from 10 other institutions thusfar), and involves predominantly NSF-funded research projects. In addition, the technical support position enables hands-on training in TIMS isotope geochemical analysis for a significant number of graduate and undergraduate students. Over 50% of the users have been students (graduate and undergraduate), and a major part of the technician?s efforts have gone into student training. Thus, the technician enables us to stay true to our mission of sustaining a research lab of excellence, while training students as the next generation of isotope geochemists. Through our website, conference presentations, and publications we actively advertise the availability of the lab and seek to share its capabilities and methodologies with the broader geochemical community.