99422915 Land This award provides partial funding for the support of a laboratory technician to oversee the operation and maintenance of the solid-source thermal ionization mass spectrometry laboratory in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Texas, Austin. The institution is committed to providing the remaining funds required. The technician will be responsible for assisting users, especially students, in obtaining high quality data, and in enhancing the capabilities of the mass spectrometer through software development, hardware testing and calibration. The thermal ionization mass spectrometer laboratory is engaged in research and teaching projects of several faculty members requiring the determination of high-precision isotopic compositions of boron, strontium, neodymium, lead, rubidium, and thorium as well as the determination of the trace abundances of rare-earth elements by isotope dilution techniques. ***
