Infrastructure for Interdisciplinary Research in Earth and Space Science at the Carnegie Institution

卡内基研究所地球与空间科学跨学科研究基础设施

• 批准号: 0963396
• 负责人: Linda Elkins-Tanton
• 金额: $ 109.3万
• 依托单位: Carnegie Institution of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2014-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0963396&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Infrastructure; Interdisciplinary; Research; Earth; Space

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The award will provide funds for infrastructure renovations needed to house new analytical and computational instrumentation for interdisciplinary research in the Earth and space sciences. The new infrastructure will enable Carnegie Institution researchers, together with a large community of visiting scientists, to pursue more effectively a broad sweep of fundamental research addressing the origin and evolution of stellar and planetary systems, the geochemical cycles of planetary volatiles, the evolution and dynamics of the Earth?s interior and surface, Earth?s energy resources, the origins of life, and the coevolution of the geo- and biospheres. The new infrastructure will support analytical micro- and nanocharacterization and imaging laboratories, together with associated sample preparation facilities, including a focused ion beam workstation, a transmission electron microscope, X-ray nanoscopes, an ultramicrotome, an ion mill, optical microscopes, and micromanipulators. Our objective is to collocate novel new instruments with existing instruments (that are currently in deficient lab facilities) into a unique cross-disciplinary research laboratory targeted for advances in planetary and solid-Earth science, astrobiology, studies of deep carbon reservoirs on Earth, and materials science problems related to energy. Renovation of an existing computational laboratory is needed to accommodate large clusters of multi-core processors, critical for future theoretical research in astrophysics, computational seismology, geodynamics, and molecular dynamics. This renovation will mesh with a campus-wide installation of a much faster (up to 10 Gb/s) internal network to support the growing data bandwidth needs of laboratory and theoretical research. Space targeted for renovation meets strict electromagnetic field and vibration requirements to house even the most sensitive state-of-the-art microanalytical instrumentation, but lacks adequate temperature control and power. Together with institutional contributions, NSF support will revitalize this otherwise outmoded space, with updated environmental controls that will allow full-time operation, additional electrical power, and instrument-specific utilities. The renovated facility will serve as a unique research center for the broad scientific community. The new infrastructure will allow the installation of new and existing analytical instruments that will enable precise and sensitive characterization of a broad range of Earth, space, and technological materials. It will be a user-friendly facility that will be frequented annually by more than 100 scientists, including Carnegie staff, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scientists, graduate students, and high school and undergraduate interns. Benefits of the new facility will also extend to the international mineral physics and high-pressure communities through the NSF COMPRES consortium and two DOE centers headquartered on the Carnegie Institution campus and serving 24 partner universities across the country, and to researchers and students from other institutions in the region. The new facility will also directly benefit the Deep Carbon Observatory, a Carnegie-based consortium sponsored by the Sloan Foundation, planned to involve 400 investigators at 80 institutions in 24 countries. The upgraded facility will have significant impact on the research programs in many fields, including geochemistry, experimental petrology and geophysics, cosmochemistry, high-pressure physics and mineral physics, diamond technology, geobiology, molecular evolution, extrasolar planets, and astrobiology, thereby promoting interdisciplinary science and collaborations, and providing unique new educational opportunities for students from high school to postdoctoral levels.

该奖项根据 2009 年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法 111-5）提供资金。 该奖项将为基础设施改造提供资金，以容纳地球和空间科学跨学科研究所需的新分析和计算仪器。新的基础设施将使卡内基研究所的研究人员与大批访问科学家一起更有效地开展广泛的基础研究，涉及恒星和行星系统的起源和演化、行星挥发物的地球化学循环、演化和动力学地球内部和表面、地球能源、生命起源以及地质圈和生物圈的共同进化。新的基础设施将支持分析微米和纳米表征以及成像实验室，以及相关的样品制备设施，包括聚焦离子束工作站、透射电子显微镜、X射线纳米显微镜、超薄切片机、离子磨、光学显微镜和显微操作器。我们的目标是将新颖的新仪器与现有仪器（目前实验室设施不足）搭配成一个独特的跨学科研究实验室，旨在推动行星和固体地球科学、天体生物学、地球深层碳库研究以及与能源相关的材料科学问题。需要对现有的计算实验室进行改造，以容纳大型多核处理器集群，这对于天体物理学、计算地震学、地球动力学和分子动力学的未来理论研究至关重要。此次改造将与在校园范围内安装速度更快（高达 10 Gb/s）的内部网络相结合，以支持实验室和理论研究不断增长的数据带宽需求。改造的空间满足严格的电磁场和振动要求，甚至可以容纳最灵敏的最先进的微分析仪器，但缺乏足够的温度控制和电力。加上机构的贡献，国家科学基金会的支持将通过更新的环境控制来振兴这个过时的空间，以允许全职操作、额外的电力和仪器专用的公用设施。翻新后的设施将成为广大科学界的独特研究中心。新的基础设施将允许安装新的和现有的分析仪器，从而能够对各种地球、太空和技术材料进行精确和灵敏的表征。这将是一个用户友好的设施，每年都会有 100 多名科学家经常光顾，其中包括卡内基工作人员、博士后研究员、访问科学家、研究生以及高中和本科生实习生。新设施的优势还将通过 NSF COMPRES 联盟和两个 DOE 中心（总部位于卡内基研究所校园并为全国 24 所合作大学提供服务）延伸至国际矿物物理和高压领域，以及来自其他机构的研究人员和学生在该地区。新设施还将直接惠及深碳观测站，这是一个由斯隆基金会赞助的卡内基财团，计划吸引 24 个国家 80 个机构的 400 名研究人员参与。升级后的设施将对地球化学、实验岩石学和地球物理学、宇宙化学、高压物理和矿物物理学、钻石技术、地球生物学、分子演化、太阳系外行星和天体生物学等多个领域的研究项目产生重大影响，从而促进跨学科研究科学与合作，并为从高中到博士后水平的学生提供独特的新教育机会。