Acquisition of a Quadrupole ICP Mass Spectrometer for the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography

This award funds a multi-quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) and sample introduction system needed by the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and visiting scholars to analyze high-salinity marine, atmospheric, and biological samples for their elemental composition. Skidaway Institute maintains world-class multi-disciplinary scientific expertise in trace elements, micro-plastics, atmospheric dust, and marine ecology; the instrumentation funded by this award enables Institute researchers and their collaborators to make high-quality measurements of sample composition for almost every element in the periodic table. The measurements enabled by this award are crucial for ocean scientists and the American public to assess the coastal environment, ocean/atmosphere interactions, and emerging threats to ocean health and food safety like microplastics and harmful algal blooms. The equipment funded by this award replaces an aging ICP-MS instrument used by Institute researchers to measure the elemental composition of samples collected in the Georgia coastal environment, the world’s oceans and atmosphere, and in laboratory cultures. Modern quadrupole ICP-MS technology and sample introduction systems offer significant advances in data quality control and reduced per-sample costs via improved sample-handling efficiency. Analytical capacity provided by this award is crucial to multiple National priorities including: supporting coastal resilience and environmental resource monitoring; providing capacity to survey mineral and other geochemical resources; and tracking pollutants and other threats to coastal marine systems, fisheries and related industries, and human health. The quadrupole ICP-MS instrument funded by this award is central to the Institute’s ability to make high-quality elemental measurements on a wide variety of samples in pursuit of multiple scientific and societal goals. This project aligns with the NSF’s biotechnology priority area. 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. NSF Award ID: 2601258 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Daniel Ohnemus | Institution: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, ATHENS, GA | Award Amount: $467,175 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2601258 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2601258.html