Acquisition of a high resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and ion chromatograph for environmental biogeochemical research and teaching at UMass Boston

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The acquisition of the requested instrumentation will support research that advances knowledge in diverse fields from Earth, environmental, and marine sciences to ecology, physiology, and biochemistry. The instrumentation will also foster collaborative and trans-disciplinary research on critical environmental issues as well as intellectual property development by providing affordable and reliable access to innovative technology for researchers at the University of Massachusetts Boston, the University of Massachusetts system, and collaborators worldwide.

The instruments will support biogeochemical and toxicological research of potentially toxic trace elements, including how these elements occur and are cycled in natural aquatic systems including the coastal ocean as well as novel investigations of metal nanoparticles as potential environmental contaminants and in medical applications. The instruments will support undergraduate and graduate student training in cutting edge environmental and biogeochemical analyses and will serve as an important resource for the educational and research missions of the School for the Environment at UMass Boston, the College of Science and Mathematics at UMass Boston, the University of Massachusetts system, and the system-wide Intercampus Marine Science Graduate Program.

The research opportunities provided by the acquisition of these instruments will advance trans-disciplinary research and teaching at the University and increase essential research and training instrumentation on campus.

The instruments will make possible several lines of research, most notably, the investigation of trace element speciation in natural waters, including various potentially toxic metals and metalloids like arsenic (As), vanadium (V), tungsten (W), chromium (Cr), and europium (Eu), which are difficult to quantify. The instruments will also support: laboratory experimental studies to measure equilibrium constants describing the formation of aqueous thioarsenate complexes, which may be more mobile in the environment, studies of the 14 naturally occurring lanthanide series elements (commonly referred to as the rare earth elements or REEs), which are considered critical metals necessary for the Nation’s security and economic prosperity, nanoparticle toxicology, metal transport in the hemolymph of marine bivalves, and biogeochemical particles fluxes in the ocean.

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.