This Academic Research Facilities Modernization Program (ARFMP) award from the Research Facilities Office provides funds to the University of Michigan Ann Arbor for the renovation and repair of the C. C. Little Building which houses the x-ray mineralogical, paleomagnetic and rock magnetic, mineral separation, and seismological/geodynamics research and research training activities of the Department of Geological Sciences. This building was constructed in 1920 and last renovated in 1970. The ARFMP grant of $350,000 and $353,570 provided by the grantee as cost sharing will be used to modernize these research and research training facilities. This project will address the need to improve the current research infrastructure by reconfiguring it so that it is more efficient and by providing adequate power and fume exhaust systems and environmental controls and computer network connectivity necessary for safe and reliable research operations. This award contributes to the infrastructure of science and engineering by providing an improved environment for the conduct of research and for the training of quality undergraduate and graduate students. Also the laboratories to be modernized in this project serve as a focus for postdoctoral programs and collaborative and cooperative research with university and industry throughout the nation and as an informal regional and national center for many types of instrument-intensive research in geology.
