Personnel needs for support of the imaging/analytical facility
The imaging/analytical facility on BBR campus consists of a newly installed Carl Zeiss
AURIGA CrossBeam FIB/SEM (focused ion beam/scanning electron microscope)
system, a JEOL 6500F thermal field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), a
JEOL JXA-8900 electron microprobe, and various supporting instruments including a
new Ladd digital evaporator for carbon coater, a Cressington high-resolution sputter
coater, and polishing and sample preparation facilities. A MRI proposal for acquisition of
a new field-emission electron microprobe has been submitted in January 2011.
The facility services both Carnegie departments (GL and DTM). It supports a range of
scientific research activities in experimental petrology and geophysics, high-pressure
physics and mineral physics, cosmochemistry, geochemistry, organic geochemistry and
astrobiology. Currently, at least 80% of the scientific staff and postdoctoral associates at
GL and a similar fraction among the geochemistry scientific staff and postdoctoral
associates at DTM make use of the microbeam instruments for their research. It also
provides service to collaborative research with a broad scientific community in the region
and in the world. Its impacts are evident through high-quality publications by the
researchers from both departments. The planned infrastructure renovation for the
imaging/analytical facility with new acquisition of the state-of-the-art instruments will
open doors for new research opportunities and continue to improve our scientific
throughput.
In order to maintain optimal operation of the facility and efficient use of the instrument,
we need to ensure adequate personnel support of the facility. Currently, we have one
dedicated full-time microbeam specialist (John Armstrong) who oversees the operation
and maintenance of the three existing microbeam instruments. Scott Price was hired as
the GL electronics engineer whose primary responsibilities are designing, building, and
maintaining laboratory instrumentation. He has been helping with the operation of the
microbeam instruments, particularly the new FIB/SEM, in addition to his primary
responsibilities. Staff scientists Yingwei Fei (GL) and Larry Nittler (DTM), PIs of the
FIB/SEM and FE-SEM respectively, have been overseeing the smooth operation of the
facility and ensuring adequate support for the facility. The current level of personnel
support for the facility is far below average for comparable facilities. Typically, operation
and maintenance of the FIB/SEM require a dedicated microbeam specialist. We are use
pre-FIB/SEM personnel support to maintain the current new facility which puts great
pressure on existing support staff and starts to affect the optimal and efficient use of the
facility. Therefore, it is critically essential for the Institution to provide an additional fulltime microbeam specialist for the joint GL-DTM imaging/analytical facility to ensure the
scientific throughput and maintain the leadership role in this competitive growing field.