This award will provide funding to upgrade an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and to make improvements in the sample preparation facilities of the X-ray fluorescence laboratory in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. The upgrade will allow this facility to achieve state-of-the-art analytical capability for the analysis of major and trace elements in rocks and minerals at a fraction of the cost of purchasing a new instrument. The XRF laboratory is run as a departmental facility open to all members of the Washington University community and to regional users from other midwestern universities and colleges, including members of the PEW Consortium of undergraduate institutions.
