Laboratory Technician Support: Enhancing Access to the John W. Handin Laboratory for Experimental Rock Deformation

实验室技术人员支持：加强对 John W. Handin 实验室岩石变形实验的访问

• 批准号: 1829264
• 负责人: Hiroko Kitajima
• 金额: $ 65.55万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1829264&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Laboratory; Technician; Support; Enhancing; Access

This award will support a new full-time technical position in the John W. Handin Laboratory for Experimental Rock Deformation at the Center for Tectonophysics, Texas A&M University, with the goal of enhancing research and education opportunities in experimental rock deformation. Experimental rock deformation has played a crucial role in evaluating many scientific and engineering problems that involve mechanics of the Earth. The five-year technician support will let them expand their testing capabilities, increase the impact of laboratory discoveries, and broaden and diversify laboratory users and visitors in research, education and outreach opportunities. Improved technical support will facilitate new collaborations to tackle the most significant problems of our research of earthquake mechanics, plate tectonics, and the character of the Earth's lithosphere, with societal applications to understanding and evaluating natural hazards. The new education and outreach program we envision, facilitated with the new technical position, will advance the transfer of knowledge, help foster critical research to meet the needs of society in the years to come, introduce students to the STEM fields of experimental rock and sediment mechanics, and define career paths in the Earth Sciences. The John W. Handin Laboratory for Experimental Rock Deformation at the Center for Tectonophysics, Texas A&M University has a long history of education and research in experimental rock deformation, and has contributed to understanding the mechanical behavior of lithospheric faults and shear zones by making use of a wide array of deformation apparatus designed to simulate conditions of the Earth's interior. However, the extent of collaboration and use of our laboratory by new users outside their program and from other institutions has been limited by the technical investment and training needed to perform experiments effectively and safely. The new laboratory technician will provide laboratory oversight and training of visitors, assist in development of online preparatory courses, and digital data archiving. Specifically, the new technician will be engaged in projects to (1) enhance utility and maintenance of laboratory facilities, (2) develop new methods and technology, (3) help develop on-line training courses on experimental methods of rock deformation for visiting researchers and students, (4) help expand education/outreach of experimental rock deformation to other programs at Texas A&M and to geoscientists at other institutions, and (5) enhance data management of open-access archives of digital experimental data and technical drawings of apparatus.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项将支持德克萨斯农工大学构造物理中心 John W. Handin 实验岩石变形实验室的一个新的全职技术职位，目标是增加实验岩石变形方面的研究和教育机会。实验岩石变形在评估涉及地球力学的许多科学和工程问题中发挥了至关重要的作用。为期五年的技术支持将使他们扩大测试能力，提高实验室发现的影响力，并扩大和多样化实验室用户和访客的研究、教育和推广机会。改进的技术支持将促进新的合作，以解决我们在地震力学、板块构造和地球岩石圈特征研究中最重要的问题，并通过社会应用来理解和评估自然灾害。我们设想的新教育和推广计划，在新技术职位的推动下，将促进知识转移，帮助促进关键研究以满足未来社会的需求，并向学生介绍实验岩石和沉积物的 STEM 领域力学，并定义地球科学的职业道路。 德克萨斯农工大学构造物理中心的 John W. Handin 岩石变形实验实验室在岩石变形实验方面拥有悠久的教育和研究历史，并通过利用一系列旨在模拟地球内部条件的变形装置。然而，项目之外的新用户和其他机构的合作和使用我们实验室的程度受到有效和安全地进行实验所需的技术投资和培训的限制。 新的实验室技术员将提供实验室监督和访客培训，协助开发在线预科课程和数字数据归档。具体来说，新技术人员将从事以下项目：（1）加强实验室设施的实用性和维护，（2）开发新方法和技术，（3）帮助为访问研究人员开发岩石变形实验方法的在线培训课程和学生，(4) 帮助将实验岩石变形的教育/推广扩展到德克萨斯农工大学的其他项目和其他机构的地球科学家，以及 (5) 加强数字实验数据和设备技术图纸的开放获取档案的数据管理。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命和通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，该项目被认为值得支持。