This grant supports acquisition of equipment to upgrade the electron microscopy facility at San Francisco State University and funding for partial support of a research technician for three years. Specific equipment to be acquired includes: 1) sputter and carbon coaters; 2) grinder and vibratory polishers; 3) a thin sectioning system; 4) rock saw; 5) SEM sample cell cleaning system; 6) asher chamber and turbo pump; and 7) Zeiss SEM sample cell airlock. Sample preparation equipment will support in-house thin sectioning and preparation of samples for textural and semi-quantitative elemental analysis using a recently NSF/MRI supported field emission gun equipped scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). The FE-SEM is also outfitted with an electron backscattered diffraction system (EBSD) that allows for quantitative determination of crystallographic preferred orientation in strained samples. EBSD requires extremely careful sample preparation using colloidal silica in a vibratory polishers to achieve extremely level sample surfaces. Technical support will ensure daily oversight for the facility and the institution has committed to future full time support following expiration of this award. The upgraded FE-SEM facility will support PI and student research that requires micro spatial textural and compositional analysis including studies of mid-crustal deformation mechanisms in the Himalayan orogen, geothermobarometry of metamorphic phases, studies of synthetic zeolite minerals for applications to sensor and dielectric technologies, studies of soil mineral interactions with various species of heavy metals, and experimental investigations of rock erodability. SFSU is an inner-city, minority-serving, and predominantly undergraduate institution. The lead PI Mary Leech is an early career untenured, Native American faculty member. The PIs participate in the SF-ROCKS program at SFSU State that reaches out to minority urban youth and involves them in university-level research projects.
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The goals of this project were to enhance faculty and student research opportunities in earth sciences at SF State through the acquisition of equipment to prepare petrographic thin sections for mineral chemistry and microtextural analysis; maintain a clean sample chamber on the Field EmissionScanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM); provide us with the ability to do rapid sample changes; and to establish a full-time technician position supported by the College of Science and Engineering who will oversee the SEM lab on a daily basis, offer technical support and instruction to faculty, students, and staff in the use of the SEM, and develop and maintain protocols for the efficient and safe use of lab equipment. Below we address the specific aims of this proposal to demonstrate how we have met all of our goals: 1. Enhance the research opportunities of at least 10 faculty members from the Departments of Geosciences and Chemistry & Biochemistry and their students, and allow them to develop new research areas that are unavailable to them without the ability to fully exploit the capabilities of the new FE-SEM. There are currently fourteen research-active CoSE faculty users of the FE-SEM in Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Earth and Climate Sciences, and Engineering. The publications resulting from work in this laboratory reflect the diversity of research taking place on the SEM. The majority of publications include student co-authors and some student first-authored peer-reviewed journal articles. Our Facility Manager is now a full-time, permanent employee fully supported by the College of Science and Engineering at SF State. Our Facility Manager oversees training, assisting users, maintenance and repairs, purchasing supplies, billing, etc. Our Facility Manager is the point person schedule repairs as needed; by working directly with repair technicians, our Facility Manager has ensured that the SEM is ready for use as soon as possible after any down-time for repairs and maintenance. The SEM and supporting equipment are well-maintained with all necessary supplies for users, and supported by user fees. 2. Enhance and broaden collaborative research projects for faculty and students. The departments of Chemistry and Engineering, and Earth & Climate Sciences and Chemistry have been very successful developing collaborative research projects together. We expect these kinds of collaborations to continue to expand as more and more faculty and students learn about the capabilities of our facility. 3. Improve the curricular and research activities of students by providing them access to cutting-edge instrumentation and technologies. Each year a course in electron microscopy is offered to graduate (and some undergraduate) student researchers whose theses would directly benefit from microscopy data. Additional students are trained individually or in small groups in a series of three training sessions for a nominal fee to become independent users in the basic operation of the SEM to allow them access to the instrument for their senior or graduate research. Our Facility Manager gives demonstrations to a number of classes in the College of Science & Engineering. These demonstrations often lead to additional students starting research projects that exploit the capabilities of the SEM facility. 4. Increase the participation of underrepresented groups in science. SF State is an inner-city, minority-serving, and predominantly undergraduate institution, and the student users of our electron microscopy facility represent this diversity. Every year the SEM Facility welcomes some sixty high school students to the SFSU campus and provides live demonstrations of the FE-SEM. These students represent the diversity of San Francisco and the greater Bay Area.
