This grant provides three-years partial salary support for a research technician in the laboratories for stable isotope geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. This is a Phase I technician support grant under the Instruments and Facilities (IF) Program. The stable isotope geochemistry technician at Caltech, Nami Kitchen, will provide the following contributions to our facility: 1) training of students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scientists in the use of instruments within this laboratory, 2) maintenance of gas-source mass spectrometers and other experimental apparatus; 3) processing samples through established analytical procedures in support of research conducted by users of this laboratory; and 4) construction and refinement of components of new analytical apparatus. Her greatest specific scientific contributions will be to provide continuous productivity and quality control for two semi-automated analytical methods developed in our laboratories over the last two years: 1) laser fluorination of minerals and glasses, applied to projects in petrology, mantle geochemistry, paleoclimate studies, and geobiology; and, 2) on-line reduction and D/H ratio measurement of trace quantities of water released from geological and meteoritic samples. This second analytical method is a relatively recent development that we anticipate will be a foundation for an innovative and productive research program over the time-scale of this grant.
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