9417677 Pasteris This award provides partial funding for the support of a technician in charge of operations and maintenance of the laser Raman microprobe laboratories in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University, St. Louis. Raman microprobe spectroscopy is a non-destructive technique in which a laser beam is introduced into a sample via a microscope. Solid, liquid, and gaseous phases can be identified rapidly and structurally characterized. The Principal Investigator and her colleagues at Washington University use Raman spectroscopy in a variety of research projects aimed at understanding the role of elements such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen in the formation of metamorphic and volcanic rocks. ***
