This award will provide partial support for a full-time Laboratory Manager position in the radiogenic isotope and geochronology facility of the GeoAnalytical Laboratory at Washington State University. During the first 5 years of operation, the facility has been enormously successful, serving the needs of over 60 faculty and postdoctoral researchers, and a similar number of graduate and undergraduate students at WSU, from across the United States, and around the world. The lab manager will be responsible for ensuring that the isotope analytical facilities (ThermoFinnigan Neptune multicollector ICP-MS, Element2 high-resolution ICPMS, and clean laboratory) can continue to offer state-of-the-art services in the Hf, Nd, Pb and Sr radiogenic isotope systems, Cu, Zn, Fe and Mo heavy stable isotope systems, U-Pb dating of zircon, and microanalytical techniques including microdrilling and, where appropriate, laser ablation. In addition, the lab manager will maintain and develop techniques, and conduct research projects in the facility. Continuing support is essential to maintaining the broad range of research projects that the facility currently supports in many diverse fields of Earth sciences including mantle and crustal evolution, solar system formation, dynamics of magma chambers, sediment provenance, and paleoclimate studies. This support will ensure that the facility operates at its full potential.
