Acquisition of a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for Multidisciplinary Research, Teaching and Outreach in the Rio Grande Valley
Abstract
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 and the Department of Defense (DoD) Appropriations Act for 2014 allocated $10.7M to assist Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) and to enhance their research and education capabilities in scientific areas relevant to the defense mission. The FY 2014 program supports the acquisition of research equipment and instrumentation to augment existing capabilities and to develop new capabilities that will facilitate greater participation in DoD research programs and encourage more students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This proposal from Principal Investigator, Dr. Karen Martirosyan, at the University of Texas-Brownsville, requests support for the acquisition of Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to support fundamental and interdisciplinary research projects and the applied physics, chemistry, engineering and biomedical education programs. The research under this project will combine broad areas in energy, environmental and biomedical expertise with potential applications in the US Defense Mission. The proposed instrumentation will be a first electron microscope to be installed at the UTB and will be used as a shared characterization facility. This proposal will support the acquisition of a variable-pressure SEM which provides high quality imaging of specimens surface features with resolution ~1 nm. The requested SEM also contains an Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Wavelength-Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (WDS), Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and cathodoluminescence (CL) detector that can determine qualitatively the elemental composition and the crystallographic orientations of a specimen including luminescent materials. The SEM will substantially improve the visibility of the engineering and natural science programs at UTB and UTPA, supporting collaborations between the college s faculty, students, and other scientists in the Rio Grande Valley. The SEM will be used in the instructional lab in Nanoscience Concentration Program that was implemented at UTB in 2012, and introduce students to this instrumentation in their undergraduate research projects. In an effort to bolster recruitment of students into STEM disciplines, the SEM-instrument will also be used during the summer months in the existing Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) designed specifically to provide exposure for local high school teachers to the scientific research enterprise.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 12, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1510065
Entities
People
- Karen Martirosyan
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of Texas Rio Grande Valley