This award will provide 50% of the funds required to acquire an electron microprobe to be installed and operated in the Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences at Princeton University. Princeton is committed to providing the remaining funds required. The electron microprobe will be used to provide quantitative chemical analyses with spatial resolution on the order of a micrometer for research projects in petrology, mineralogy, and geochemistry for which small-scale materials characterization is critical. The instrument will be part of the Princeton campus-wide materials science facility and will be widely available for use.