University of Richmond Science Departments Receive NSF Grants for Major Equipment Purchases
November 6, 2001
The National Science Foundation has awarded the University of Richmond two grants totaling nearly $650,000 to purchase state-of-the-art scientific equipment to be used in ongoing research and training of undergraduate students for high technology science careers.
NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program will provide the chemistry department with $480,694 toward the purchase of a high field nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer and the physics department with $151,758 toward a computer cluster used in electromagnetic nuclear physics research. As required by NSF, the university will provide some matching funds.
The computer cluster will be used to analyze data and perform simulations to determine the response of one of the large particle detectors at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News. The goal is greater understanding of the atomic nucleus in terms of the fundamental constituents of matter, called quarks. Richmond physics faculty and students have been involved in experiments at the facility for several years.
"This is basic research which provides the fuel for applied research,” said Michael Vineyard, associate professor of physics at the university. "Laboratory experiments in nuclear physics have been applied to an incredible variety of problems, from the interaction of quarks to the early evolution of the universe just after the Big Bang.
"Today, techniques learned from nuclear physics are used to perform medical diagnosis and treatment to areas inside the body without surgery. Applications of basic nuclear physics have truly changed the way we live and will continue to do so in the future.”
Vineyard and Gerard Gilfoyle, associate professor and chairman of the physics department, submitted the computer cluster proposal.
Five chemistry faculty-Bill Myers, John Gupton, Raymond Dominey, Emma Goldman and Suzanne O'Handley-prepared the proposal for the NMR.
Using technology similar to hospital MRI machines, an NMR spectrometer can examine physical, chemical and biological properties of atoms that compose matter. Richmond's will be used in ongoing research into the structure of organic, inorganic, organometallic and biochemical molecules.
"The university is in the early stages of a science initiative, designed to move the science programs and the experiences students have, into the top tier of undergraduate institutions in the U.S.,” said Myers, the proposal's principal author. "Part of the effort is to enhance facilities that support science education, and the NMR equipment represents an important first step.
"In chemistry, eight of 10 faculty have research programs with undergraduates that use the NMR as a major characterization tool, and the high-field nature of the instrument provides heightened ability to investigate biochemical samples.”
The National Science Foundation is an independent federal agency responsible for promoting science and engineering through programs that invest more than $3.3 billion a year in some 20,000 research and education projects. Richmond landed two of only 309 grants awarded under the major instrumentation program.
Founded in 1830, the University of Richmond is a private, independent liberal arts university located in the capital of Virginia. Its 2,950 undergraduates represent 47 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 54 countries.