MRI: Acquisition of a Shared Multi Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer for Ocean, Earth, Environmental, and Geobiological Sciences in Southern California

金属是地球上生命所必需的，但它们也可能是有毒的。金属的测量在地质学、海洋学、生态学、环境科学和医学中都有应用。获得多收集器电感耦合等离子体质谱计（MC-ICPMS）将使金属分析领域的新科学发现能够解决许多科学学科的重大科学问题。这个仪器将被安置在南加州大学；用户将包括该大学以及南加州其他学术机构和政府机构的科学家。该仪器将使社会相关的研究，增加培训学生和早期职业研究人员的机会，加强教学和社区参与，并支持政府机构的使命。生命依赖于元素周期表中的元素，而这些元素对生物体的可用性通常由地球化学过程控制。与此同时，一些元素，特别是金属，可能是致命的环境污染物：一些最广为人知的公共卫生灾难是由铅、汞和铬中毒造成的。金属的多方面功能，以及它们因人类活动而受到的干扰，使它们成为生物、环境、海洋和地球过程的引人注目的示踪剂。虽然对自然环境和人体中的金属进行了数十年的研究，但测量其同位素比率的自然变异性的能力是最近才出现的，主要是自21世纪初以来，并改变了我们对地球系统许多组成部分的理解。随着金属同位素分析的应用从地球科学扩展到医学和环境工程等领域，这些化学工具将产生越来越大的影响。在南加州大学（USC）获得一台多收集器-电感耦合等离子体质谱仪（MC-ICPMS）仪器，将利用主要研究人员的专业知识和研究兴趣，再加上南加州地区跨越多个学科和多个机构的广泛用户，使同位素分析的新应用变得令人兴奋。金属将是一个主要的关注焦点，从Li到U的元素都是研究对象，它们可以为海洋学、水文学、古生物学、环境健康、医学等研究领域提供见解。拟议中的仪器将成为新的南加州元素和同位素分析中心的基石，该中心还将包括现有的补充仪器。MC-ICPMS技术的新应用将通过以下方式实现：(i)专注于大规模样本集的分析，（ii）扩大MC-ICPMS技术的知识范围，包括在人类生物学和公共卫生等领域，以及（iii）为南加州的广泛用户群服务，特别是使研究人员依靠远程设施的仪器无法实现的新颖和探索性科学成为可能。更广泛的影响将包括为培养同位素科学领域的未来领导者提供一个工具，通过与政府机构建立研究-教育伙伴关系，使科学为公共利益服务，以及为开发新的研究生课程提供一个平台。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Metals are necessary to life on Earth, yet they can also be toxic. Measurement of metals has applications in geology, oceanography, ecology, environmental science, and medicine. The acquisition of a multiple collector-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, or MC-ICPMS, will enable new scientific discoveries in metals analysis to address major scientific questions across many scientific disciplines. This instrument will be housed at USC; users will include scientists within the university and at other academic institutions and government agencies in Southern California. The instrumentation will enable societally relevant research, increase opportunities for training students and early career researchers, enhance teaching and community engagement, and support governmental agencies in their mission. Life depends on elements from across the periodic table, and the availability of these elements to organisms is often controlled by geochemical processes. At the same time, some elements, especially metals, can be deadly environmental contaminants: some of the most widely known public health disasters have resulted from lead, mercury, and chromium poisoning. The multi-faceted functions of metals, and their perturbation due to human activities, make them compelling tracers of biological, environmental, marine, and Earth processes. While metals in the natural environment and the human body have been researched for decades, the capability to measure natural variability in their isotope ratios has emerged relatively recently, primarily since the early 2000s, and has transformed our understanding of many components of the Earth system. As the applications of metal isotope analysis spreads from the geosciences to fields such as medicine and environmental engineering, these chemical tools are poised to have a growing impact. Acquiring a Multiple Collector-Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (MC-ICPMS) instrument at the University of Southern California (USC) would enable exciting new applications of isotopic analysis, taking advantage of the expertise and research interests of the principle investigators, coupled with a wide range of users spanning multiple disciplines and multiple institutions in the southern California region. Metals will be a major focus of attention, with elements from Li to U all serving as targets of interest for the insights that they can provide in research areas including oceanography, hydrology and paleobiology, as well as environmental health, medicine, and more. The proposed instrument will be a cornerstone of a new Southern California Center for Elemental and Isotopic Analysis, which will also encompass existing, complementary instrumentation. Novel application of MC-ICPMS technology will be enabled by (i) focusing on analysis of large-scale sample sets, (ii) widening the intellectual reach of MC-ICPMS techniques, including in areas such as human biology and public health, and (iii) serving a wide user base in southern California, particularly enabling novel and exploratory science that is not possible when researchers are relying on instruments at remote facilities. Broader impacts will include providing an instrument for training future leaders in the isotope sciences, enabling science for the public good by building research-education partnerships with government agencies, and offering a platform for developing new graduate-level curriculum.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.