Liquid scintillation counter for current-use pesticides and emerging contaminants research

正在申请资金购买PerkinElmer Tri-Carb®4910TR液体闪烁计数器。对于我的研究来说，Tri-Carb 4910TR是一个理想的工具，因为它可以用来量化液体样品中超低水平的碳-14和氚的放射性。在过去的6年里，液体闪烁计数器(LSC)对我60%的参考出版物(n=29)和40%的会议报告(n=105)的发表是必不可少的。我的研究的性质是，我的学生平均每年处理LSC提供的8500多个样本。在过去的6年里，我的16名学生(6PhD，4MSc，6BSC)要求在他们的项目中使用LSC。这一请求具有紧迫性。在不久的将来，我的研究团队将无法再使用我们目前使用的Beckman Coulter LS6500，因为制造商正在逐步淘汰其整个LSC产品线。这意味着，当当前的许可证于2016年6月19日到期时，加拿大核安全委员会将不会重新发放LS6500的许可证。这是我现在的学生非常关心的问题，他们依赖LSC进行实验。如果没有Tri-Carb 4910TR，我目前的NSERC-DG研究计划将无法持续，我的整体研究效率将迅速下降，因为我的研究团队将不得不停止所有吸附和矿化实验，在过去10年中，这些实验是31篇参考出版物和75篇会议报告的基础。Tri-Carb 4910TR将用于我的研究，这项研究正在推进对土地和水系统中有机化学品命运的了解，包括当前使用的杀虫剂、类固醇雌激素和抗生素。该仪器将允许我的学生继续应用行业标准技术来孤立地检查有机化学消散的特定途径。我在NSERC-DG项目下提供卓越的学生培训的能力一直并正在与我为他们的研究提供LSC直接相关。在过去的6年里，五名研究生因为他们的会议演讲而获得了总共11个金钱奖，这些演讲依赖于使用LSC获得的数据。LSC允许我吸引获得主要奖学金的研究生加入我的研究项目，以及获得研究助学金的本科生，包括过去六年的8个NSERC-本科生研究奖。这些学生正在学习加拿大和国际雇主正在寻找的专业技能。例如，放射性同位素技术被作物保护和制药行业广泛用于研究和开发新的产品线。Tri-Carb 4910TR对我的同事和他们在土壤科学、植物科学、土木工程、生物系统工程、地质科学和生物科学系的学生的研究也将是重要的。

Funding is being requested to purchase a PerkinElmer Tri-Carb® 4910TR Liquid Scintillation Counter. The Tri-Carb 4910TR is an ideal tool for my research because it can be used to quantify the radioactivity of ultra-low levels of carbon-14 and tritium in liquid samples. In the past 6 years, a Liquid Scintillation Counter (LSC) was essential to the publication of 60% of my refereed publications (n=29) and 40% of my total conference presentations (n=105). The nature of my research is that my students process, on average, more than 8,500 samples per year by an LSC. In the past 6 years, sixteen of my students (6PhD, 4MSc, 6BSc) required the use of an LSC in their projects. There is an urgency to this request. In the immediate future, my research team will no longer have access to the Beckman Coulter LS6500 that we are currently using because the manufacturer is phasing out its entire LSC product line. This means that the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission will not relicense the LS6500 when the current license expires on June 19, 2016. This is of great concern to my current students who rely on an LSC for their experiments. Without the Tri-Carb 4910TR in place, my current NSERC-DG research program will not be sustainable and my overall research productivity will decrease rapidly because my research team would have to stop all sorption and mineralization experiments which, in the past 10 years, have been the foundation of 31 refereed publications and 75 conference presentations. The Tri-Carb 4910TR will be used in my research that is advancing knowledge of the fate of organic chemicals in land and water systems, including current-use pesticides, steroidal estrogens, and antibiotics. The instrument will allow my students to continue to apply industry standard techniques to examine, in isolation, specific pathways of organic chemical dissipation. My ability to provide excellence in student training under my NSERC-DG program has been and is, directly related to me providing an LSC for their research. Over the past 6 years, five graduate students won a total of 11 monetary awards for their conference presentations that relied on data obtained using an LSC. The LSC allows me to attract graduate students to my research program who are awarded major scholarships, as well as undergraduate students who are awarded research assistantships, including 8 NSERC-Undergraduate Student Research Awards in the past six years. These students are being equipped with the specialized skills that Canadian and international employers are looking for. For example, radioisotope techniques are widely utilized by crop protection and pharmaceutical industries in research and development of new product lines. The Tri-Carb 4910TR will also be important to the research of my colleagues and their students in the Departments of Soil Science, Plant Science, Civil Engineering, Biosystems Engineering, Geological Sciences, and Biological Sciences.