Acquisition of a Tabletop Scanning Electron Microscope and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer by the Earth Science Department at Vassar College, a PUI

Acquisition of a Tabletop Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with an Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometer (EDS) for research, teaching, and public outreach has been granted to the Vassar College Earth Science Department. Scanning Electron Microscopes are powerful instruments used for imaging natural and manufactured materials beyond the capabilities of traditional light microscopes.

Our department will use the SEM-EDS to support new research in understanding past climate and ocean change, in the evolution of mountain belts, and past volcanic eruptions, providing research opportunities for undergraduates at every stage of their college experience. PI Haynes will investigate how microscopic fossils called foraminifera record ocean acidification events in the geologic past.

These shells of these creatures are ubiquitous in the geologic record and help to ground-truth the impacts of large warming events on the Earth system and its ecosystems. This SEM will form a significant portion of PI Haynes’ research toolkit, supporting her establishment as an early-career scientist and providing opportunities for undergraduate research in her laboratory.

The SEM-EDS will also be used at all levels of our curriculum; for example, students will have the instrument available to them as a tool to be used for final projects of their own design, providing primary research experience. Finally, new programming will be designed in our department’s Geological Museum that will help co-create new exhibits with SEM imagery collected with our local community members.

We aim to increase the impact of our local museum to generate interest and connection with Earth Science topics and the Vassar community at large as well as marginalized members of the Poughkeepsie community. This award will support two summer undergraduate research assistants to design and implement these efforts in local science communication. We believe that this programming will significantly increase the impact of our local museum and create a regional hub for natural history education.

A newly acquired Phenom-XL Tabletop Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with an Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometer (EDS) will be used for research, teaching, and public outreach in the Vassar College Earth Science Department. In PI Haynes’ lab, the SEM will be used to assess the mineral structure, preservation, and morphology of fossils and microfossils, primarily foraminifera.

Using sediments collected from the International Ocean Discovery Program’s recent Expedition 378, PI Haynes will investigate the record of climate and ocean change recorded by foraminifera microfossils during rapid warming events of the Eocene epoch (45-57 Ma). The SEM will be utilized to 1) address primary questions in the evolution of foraminifera morphology, taxonomy, and physiology, and 2) diagnose whether and to what degree shell diagenesis and contamination biases geochemical records of past ocean acidification.

In Co-PI Walker’s lab, the SEM-EDS system will be used to investigate clay mineral formation and geochemistry. Co-PI Menking’s research aims reconstruct the terrestrial paleoclimate history as recorded by lake sediments, notably in sediments of the Pleistocene Lake Estancia and lakes from central New York, using this instrument to investigate changes in sediment composition as well as determine diatom taxonomy, two important indicators of past environmental change.

In addition, the investigators will use the instrument to characterize microplastics and in reconstructing volcanic eruption histories via zoning and microbubbles in minerals. This award received cofounding from the Marine Geology and Geophysics (MGG) program in the Ocean Science division.

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.