TS: Technician to Support Clumped Isotope Research, Instrument Training, and STEM Outreach at North Carolina State University

About This Grant

This project will hire a new technician for North Carolina State University’s (NC State) Paleo Isotope Laboratory (PIL). This new position will help the PIL to study ancient Earth’s geological and environmental processes and develop new analyses. The technician will train students and researchers to perform research that uses clumped carbonate isotope geochemistry. This will create a hub for this type of analysis at NC State, strengthening scientific resources across the region. This position will also make the PIL’s resources more available for applied research projects from external users. Finally, this work will support public outreach on Earth history and connect local youth to STEM opportunities. The new technician will contribute to directed research at the PIL, which focuses on resolving the conditions and drivers of changing climatic conditions and ecosystem impacts in the past. Specifically, this involves developing better analytical and interpretive approaches for terrestrial geochemistry proxies including carbonate clumped (Δ47) isotopes. Clumped isotope geochemistry is a rapidly growing area of paleoclimatology, because it offers a means to directly measure mineral temperatures and characterize changes in source fluids. This provides information to determine reconstructions of environmental temperatures, sediment burial and maturation histories, changes in water or hydrothermal fluid sources, feedback between tectonic uplift and climate, and even evaluating thermal strategies of organisms. The technician will assist with management and repair of specialized IRMS instrumentation, data collection and experimental design for carbonate standard and clumped isotope studies, training students and visiting researchers in isotope systematics and applications, and contributing to public outreach events, thereby contributing to these efforts for both ongoing and future NSF-funded projects. Moreover, the added personnel support from a dedicated technician will enable the PIL to help serve the scientific goals of dozens of research groups in the Southeastern U.S. and beyond which are devoted to better understanding paleoclimatic, biogeochemical, and depositional processes, and grow the interdisciplinary research portfolio and service-center capacity of the PIL. 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.