This award will provide one-half of the funds required to purchase, ship and upgrade a used electron microprobe that will be operated in the Department of Earth Sciences at Iowa State University. The University is committed to providing the remaining 50% of the funds required. The upgraded instrument will be used in research projects in the Department of Earth Sciences as well as by solid state chemists and materials scientists at Iowa State and the Ames Laboratory. The microanalytical capabilities of the microprobe technique will be applied to research in meteoritics, igneous petrology, ore deposits, and studies of new oxides, nitrides and sulfides of transition metals.
