Infrastructure for Interdisciplinary Research in Earth and Space Science at the Carnegie Institution

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。该奖项将提供翻修基础设施所需的资金，为地球和空间科学的跨学科研究配备新的分析和计算仪器。新的基础设施将使卡内基研究所的研究人员与大量来访的科学家一起，更有效地开展广泛的基础研究，涉及恒星和行星系统的起源和演化、行星挥发物的地球化学循环、地球内部和表面的演化和动力学？S、地球？S能源资源、生命的起源，以及地球和生物圈的共同进化。新的基础设施将支持分析微观和纳米表征和成像实验室，以及相关的样品制备设施，包括聚焦离子束工作站、透射式电子显微镜、X射线纳米显微镜、超微切割机、离子磨机、光学显微镜和微型操纵器。我们的目标是将新的新仪器与现有仪器(目前实验室设施不足)配置在一个独特的跨学科研究实验室中，旨在促进行星和固体地球科学、天体生物学、地球深层碳库研究以及与能源有关的材料科学问题的进展。需要翻新现有的计算实验室，以容纳大型多核处理器集群，这对未来天体物理、计算地震学、地球动力学和分子动力学的理论研究至关重要。这项改造将与全校范围内安装速度更快(高达10 Gb/S)的内部网络相匹配，以支持实验室和理论研究日益增长的数据带宽需求。计划翻新的空间满足严格的电磁场和振动要求，即使是最灵敏的最先进的微量分析仪器也能容纳，但缺乏足够的温度控制和功率。与机构贡献一起，NSF的支持将重振这个原本过时的空间，更新环境控制，允许全职运行、额外的电力和特定于仪器的公用事业。翻新后的设施将成为广大科学界的独特研究中心。新的基础设施将允许安装新的和现有的分析仪器，从而能够对广泛的地球、空间和技术材料进行精确和灵敏的表征。它将是一个用户友好的设施，每年将有100多名科学家经常光顾，包括卡内基大学的工作人员、博士后研究员、访问科学家、研究生以及高中和本科生实习生。新设施的好处还将通过NSF COMPRES财团和总部设在卡内基研究所园区的两个能源部中心，以及来自该地区其他机构的研究人员和学生，扩展到国际矿物物理和高压社区，为全国24所合作大学提供服务。新设施还将直接惠及深度碳观察站，这是一个总部位于卡内基的财团，由斯隆基金会赞助，计划涉及24个国家80个机构的400名调查人员。升级后的设施将对许多领域的研究项目产生重大影响，包括地球化学、实验岩石学和地球物理、宇宙化学、高压物理和矿物物理、钻石技术、地球生物学、分子进化、太阳系外行星和天体生物学，从而促进跨学科科学与合作，并为从高中到博士后水平的学生提供独特的新教育机会。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The award will provide funds for infrastructure renovations needed to house new analytical and computational instrumentation for interdisciplinary research in the Earth and space sciences. The new infrastructure will enable Carnegie Institution researchers, together with a large community of visiting scientists, to pursue more effectively a broad sweep of fundamental research addressing the origin and evolution of stellar and planetary systems, the geochemical cycles of planetary volatiles, the evolution and dynamics of the Earth?s interior and surface, Earth?s energy resources, the origins of life, and the coevolution of the geo- and biospheres. The new infrastructure will support analytical micro- and nanocharacterization and imaging laboratories, together with associated sample preparation facilities, including a focused ion beam workstation, a transmission electron microscope, X-ray nanoscopes, an ultramicrotome, an ion mill, optical microscopes, and micromanipulators. Our objective is to collocate novel new instruments with existing instruments (that are currently in deficient lab facilities) into a unique cross-disciplinary research laboratory targeted for advances in planetary and solid-Earth science, astrobiology, studies of deep carbon reservoirs on Earth, and materials science problems related to energy. Renovation of an existing computational laboratory is needed to accommodate large clusters of multi-core processors, critical for future theoretical research in astrophysics, computational seismology, geodynamics, and molecular dynamics. This renovation will mesh with a campus-wide installation of a much faster (up to 10 Gb/s) internal network to support the growing data bandwidth needs of laboratory and theoretical research. Space targeted for renovation meets strict electromagnetic field and vibration requirements to house even the most sensitive state-of-the-art microanalytical instrumentation, but lacks adequate temperature control and power. Together with institutional contributions, NSF support will revitalize this otherwise outmoded space, with updated environmental controls that will allow full-time operation, additional electrical power, and instrument-specific utilities. The renovated facility will serve as a unique research center for the broad scientific community. The new infrastructure will allow the installation of new and existing analytical instruments that will enable precise and sensitive characterization of a broad range of Earth, space, and technological materials. It will be a user-friendly facility that will be frequented annually by more than 100 scientists, including Carnegie staff, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scientists, graduate students, and high school and undergraduate interns. Benefits of the new facility will also extend to the international mineral physics and high-pressure communities through the NSF COMPRES consortium and two DOE centers headquartered on the Carnegie Institution campus and serving 24 partner universities across the country, and to researchers and students from other institutions in the region. The new facility will also directly benefit the Deep Carbon Observatory, a Carnegie-based consortium sponsored by the Sloan Foundation, planned to involve 400 investigators at 80 institutions in 24 countries. The upgraded facility will have significant impact on the research programs in many fields, including geochemistry, experimental petrology and geophysics, cosmochemistry, high-pressure physics and mineral physics, diamond technology, geobiology, molecular evolution, extrasolar planets, and astrobiology, thereby promoting interdisciplinary science and collaborations, and providing unique new educational opportunities for students from high school to postdoctoral levels.