9725456 Williams This grant provides three-years partial salary support for an electron microprobe (EMP) technician at the University of Massachusetts. This is a Phase I technician support (TS) request under the Instrumentation and Facilities (IF) Program. Initially, Dr. Michael Jercinovic will help these investigators establish new analytical procedures on their Cameca SX-50 EMP using a recently acquired automation and imaging package (EAR- 9503054). Salary support will cover a transition period as they spin up new analytical procedures using their newly upgraded EMP and acquire outside contracts that will eventually provide revenues to replace NSF support. The facility not only supports the petrologic and materials research programs of faculty within the Department of Geology and the College of Engineering, but also the research programs of several other regional faculty and their undergraduate students (i.e. Smith College, Williams College, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke and Colgate University). Jercinovic will focus on developing new analytical procedures including development of the remote control module that shipped with the new SX-100 software. This feature allows for some remote operations of the EMP via the internet and can return backscattered electron images in a similar fashion. Remote operation offers an important advance for educational purposes at regional colleges that do not have direct access to a functioning analytical grade EMP. ***
