What's Going on Inside the IRIC

Once complete, it will be the only instrument of its kind in the world, extending simultaneous measurement of human movement during real tasks to the full arm and hand complex while capturing data from the central and peripheral nervous systems via EEG and EMG measurement.

Funding: Prior support from NSF

Lead PI: Joel Perry

The Bioadaptable Polymer Lab (BPL) – The Chemical Engineering of Applied and Advanced Materials (CEAAM) lab has evolved and expanded collaborations into projects more focused on the design and engineering of soft matter polymers and polymeric hydrogels with roles in various biological systems or applications. IRIC space allows researchers to make a more interactive and collaborative group for research in new hydrogels and soft matter materials. Research has focused mostly on the synthesis of polymeric systems for bioremediation generating 3 masters students while incorporating over 10 undergraduate researchers and even a retooled Honors Chemistry course (20+ students). Recent funding will also extend research projects to include the synthesis and evaluation of non-fouling polymeric membranes for water systems on the ISS. Collaborations exist between researchers generating new nonfouling biomaterials for tissue regeneration.

PIs: James Moberly, Kristopher Waynant, Mark Roll

Our biomimicry BlueWave Project targets sustainable, long-view solutions for water pollution, water recovery and water reuse that can be developed by leveraging eons of biological evolutionary experience with creative integration into a whole system architecture approach addressing clean water, food security, and climate change mitigation.

Primary PI: Gregory Moller

The mission of the Center for Indigenous Research and Education (CIRE) is to serve as an interdisciplinary research and resource center in the field of indigenous studies, education and natural sciences and related fields at local, state, national and international levels. The CIRE also provides research-related services to indigenous nations and to the U of l community of students, staff and faculty. CIRE is foundational to the U of l land-grant mission and seeks to enhance relational accountability between the university and indigenous lands, people and Knowledge Systems within the State of Idaho. CIRE supports the co-construction of academic content, methodologies and learning outcomes of higher education to engage the 21st Century needs and desires of Tribal Nations and indigenous innovations in the Northwest U.S. while engaging globally to create new knowledge that transforms conventional understanding of the connection between people and place and contributes to sustainable futures.

CRC researchers address the social, economic and environmental issues that affect community resilience in Idaho and the United States, such as integrated food, energy, and water trade-offs; maritime and arctic security; and the need for tools and approaches to observe changes in environments and their connected social systems.

Funding: NSF, Department of Homeland Security, NGA

Lead PIs: Lilian Alessa and Andrew Kliskey

As part of the ORED P3R1 initiative, IIDS has hired four research staff positions who will serve as the nucleus for a new U of I research initiative in Computational One Health. Computational One Health is a widely adopted framework that considers human, wildlife and livestock health as an integrated system. The University of Idaho seeks to add capacity in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Bioinformatics to our existing interdisciplinary team of One Health researchers. Housing these four positions in IRIC within the same general space benefits the interactive efficiency of the scientists but provides a convenient and common U of I space for researchers across campus to collaborate with these individuals.

Lead PI: Barrie Robison

This interdisciplinary, humanities-led lab will draw together scholars and graduate students from the humanities, social sciences, and sciences to engage in collaborative projects that address environmental problems, especially those relevant to Idaho. Our premise is that a clearer understanding of the intense emotions and prevalent stories surrounding issues such as climate change, species extinction, extreme weather, water scarcity, natural resource management, and public land use, combined with efforts to improve communication and empathy across ideological, political, and disciplinary divides, will lead to more effective solutions to environmental problems. Our goals are as follows: 1.) identify communication barriers (ideological, political, and disciplinary) that are obstacles to addressing environmental problems in the state of Idaho; 2.) understand the emotions that inform these barriers; 3.) experiment with new communication strategies, including narratives and visual texts, that promote empathy across these barriers; and 4.) collaborate with communities to communicate more effectively and plan for the future.

Departments: English, Natural Resources and Society; Politics and Philosophy; Department of Culture, Society and Justice

Primary PI: Erin James and Jennifer Ladino

Goal to expand the use of genomics in ecology and natural resource management and to provide student and visiting researchers with scientific training in this new and expanding research area. This has an important link to our land grant mission and currently our research team has projects in at least 13 states and five countries. IRIC facilities are used to create libraries for projects involving reduced representation DNA (i.e. RADSeq), metabarcoding/eDNA and GTseq (SNP panels).

Lead PI: Lisette Waits

The University of Idaho has an untold history of Black academics, students, administrators, faculty, athletes and civic activism. The objective of this project is to chronicle the contributions of Blacks at the University of Idaho. The primary goals are to:

1. Develop a virtual/digital exhibit in partnership with the U of I library
2. Create a physical traveling exhibit
3. Publish peer-reviewed articles
4. Present academic presentations on the topic.

Our interdisciplinary institutional partners are U of I’s Digital Initiatives and History departments.

Primary PI: Sidney Freeman

This lab will provide expertise on and access to genome editing techniques, which allow researchers to alter DNA to modify traits and understand plant and animal biology. Initial focus will be on wheat, barley, potatoes, tomatoes, litchi tomatoes, mosquitoes and wireworms, with future expansion likely.

Funding: Idaho Wheat Commission, IBEST, U of I

Lead PI: Fangming Xiao

I-CREWS builds national research competitiveness and capacity for addressing the national need to proactively address the impacts of climate, population and technological change on energy-water (E-W) systems. The project will advance research, education, workforce development (WFD) initiatives and partnership capacity in the rapidly growing state of Idaho in two strategic directions aligned with the State’s Science and Technology Plan and guided by the Idaho EPSCoR Committee. It (1) leverages and builds linkages among existing areas of academic research strengths in the geosciences, biological sciences, social sciences and resilience science, and (2) expands Idaho’s nascent research capacity in computational modeling, machine learning and artificial intelligence to provide analytical outcomes. Key objectives are to: (1) characterize and evaluate E-W configurations for a continuum of resilience strategies; (2) model and represent E-W configurations and their resilience; and (3) develop alternative futures scenarios of E-W trajectories and their resilience to change. These objectives are pursued using a range of Idaho’s communities, landscapes and watersheds as resilience testbeds. I-CREWS advances novel science and training to integrate local knowledge, governance dynamics and advanced modeling.

Researchers will conduct anthropological, historical, and chemical analyses on materials recovered from several excavations in Idaho, such Fort Boise, Chinese mining camps and the James Castle house, as well as from future projects.

Funding: Idaho State Historical Society, John Calhoun Smith Fund, City of Boise, US Forest Service/Boise National Forest

Lead PI: Mark Warner

Collaborative Research: Causes and consequences of fire-regime variability in Rocky Mountain forests.

This project is an interdisciplinary project (modern and paleo ecology, climate science, natural resource management, computer science, biology, earth system modeling) . Recent global Increases in fire activity highlight major uncertainties about how disturbances will interact with ongoing climate change. In the western U.S., shifting disturbance regimes are predicted to lead to long-lasting directional changes or shifts in biogeochemical states, influencing carbon and nitrogen balance over large spatial and temporal scales. A significant outcome from this work will be an assessment of local-to-regional C stocks in subalpine forests over the past 2500 years, and the development of millennial-length fire and climate records valuable for advancing Earth system models. Broader impacts include forest-climate-fire k-12 curriculum at MOSS and an embedded journalism student who will document and disseminate the research efforts (field, lab, written) to the public.

PI: Tara Hudiburg

The Idaho Water Resources Research Institute operates a service center to assist faculty, staff and students in their research endeavors relative to water research. In the Integrated Research and Innovation Center (IRIC) on the Moscow campus, equipment is available to conduct analytic measurements relative to water quality.

Lead PI: Alan Kolok

This space in IRIC will house the project co-Directors and Project Manager for IAMP. IAMP is a Public, Private, Tribal Partnership that will build climate-smart markets and increase adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 200 farms in Idaho through the provision of financial and technical assistance to producers, with a focus on barley, beef, chickpeas, hops, potatoes, sugar beets and wheat.

This center is under development currently by the co-directors. The IHHE will be a multidisciplinary and collaborative center for excellence with the objective of building a more sustainable human ecosystem through research, teaching and outreach. The IHHE will seek to accelerate practices and policies that transform the lives of people and animals in Idaho and around the world. The IHHE vision is to train the scientists of tomorrow; trainees will gain expertise in human, animal and plant health, and disease cycles relative to the environmental bases of human ecology and recognize that essential feedback cycles control ecosystem health. Trainees will develop communication skills to interface with clientele groups including at-risk populations, government agencies and foundations, agriculturalists, relevant industries and scientific colleagues.

PIs: Edwin Lewis and Shirley Luckhart

IMCI researchers use advanced mathematical, statistical and computational modeling to answer biomedical research questions, such as how pathogens interact during co-infection and how social interactions contribute to disease spread.

Funding: National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Lead PI: Holly Wichman

The scientific focus of the consortium is to combine mathematical modeling with innovative engineering technology designed to test stalk strength on large populations of plants so that we can predict the underlying features that cause stalk lodging. These underlying features will be systematically used in the future to improve current grain crop varieties; thus aiding in both food and energy security.

Funding: NSF

Departments: Forest Rangeland and Fire Sciences, Mechanical Engineering

Primary PI: Daniel Robertson and Armando McDonald

Tick-borne diseases (TDs) account for a staggering 94% of human illnesses due to vector-borne diseases in the U.S. The mission of this project is to assimilate disparate datasets with spatio-temporal, environmental and human predictors and to leverage cyberinfrastructure and data science to enhance forecasting of TDs in the western US.

Primary PI: Xiaogang Ma

1. Mapping the Soil Resistome: Implications for Human Health and the Environment:
   This project builds on the results of the 2nd project below and seeks to map the occurrence of antibiotic resistance in soils and determine potential hotspots of resistance (and their drivers), as well as, the proximity of these hotspots to areas of human health concern (e.g. hospitals, nursing homes, and schools). Additional work will employ a microcosm approach to examine the response of soil microbial communities to antibiotic additions.
2. Interactions between antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities and coupled elemental cycles:
   This is a USDA funded project examining links between the maintenance of antibiotic resistance in soil microbial communities, change in the composition of those communities with an eye towards human heath, and the impact such changes have on the function of these communities.

Lead PI: Michael Strickland

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, Division of Public Health Tobacco Control and Prevention (Department) contracted with our team to conduct needed surveillance and project evaluation to improve efforts to reduce tobacco use among Idahoans. There are four distinct aspects to the project as well as integration of the findings to identity critical tobacco risk areas in Idaho.

The four parts include:

1. Idaho Youth Vaping Survey — The team will design and conduct a Youth Vaping Survey among Idaho middle and high school students and report findings to the Department, Public Health Districts and the Idaho Department of Education.
2. Small Area Estimate Modeling — The modeling team will generate county level tobacco use and tobacco-related data indicators, which are available in the Idaho Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Estimates will be created and mapped in an interactive web-based platform, which will be housed by Research, Computing and Data Services (RCDS). In addition, a health-based database will be constructed which support the above mapping systems.
3. Assessment of Idaho Tobacco Policies — The team (including undergraduate and graduate students) will contact all Idaho school and other agencies/organizations identified by the department to identity existing tobacco policy and regulations. These policy data will be mapped using the interactive platform indicated above.
4. Assessment of Tobacco Retail Established — We will identify and map the location of tobacco and vaping retail outlets on an interactive web-based platform.

While these are four distinct projects, one commonality is the interactive mapping aspect that will allow ample opportunity to examine inter-relationships between tobacco use, tobacco policy and tobacco retail establishments. The findings will provide the Department with needed data to make strategic and decisive public health practice decisions, identity and predict tobacco use risk and to evaluate the impact of tobacco control interventions.

Modeling Idaho COVID-19 Health Disparities

Employing small area estimate modeling techniques, we will model and provide county level data for COVID-19 related health indicators identified in BRFSS. This work is important to identity COVID-19 disease severity risk, targets for COVID-19 vaccines and to identify areas most susceptible to long COVID-119 and future virus outbreaks. We will map the county level data using the same web-based interactive platform described above. In addition to this contractual work, much opportunity exists to explore associations between COVID-19 risks and COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations at a county level.

Lead PI: Helen Brown

Control of pests and pathogenic diseases has traditionally relied on pesticide/fungicide sprays. These tools not only threaten the human health and ecosystem but also generate uncontrollable multidrug-resistant pathogenic strains. Thus, alternative approaches to manage pests and pathogenic bacteria in a sustainable and eco-friendly manner are needed to maintain high crop production. Using natural compounds instead of synthetic compounds for pest and disease control is much more desirable because they are environmentally friendly. Silencing virulence genes of pests and pathogens is an approach which utilizes naturally occurring small RNAs carried by plant secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs). Although time-consuming and labor-intensive, differential ultracentrifugation has remained as the most widely used method for EV purification. To meet the increasing use of EVs, there is an urgent need of more efficient and reliable methods for isolating large amounts of highly pure EVs. For this project, functionalized nanoparticles will be designed and fabricated to replace the time-consuming differential ultracentrifugation for the isolation of plant EVs.

Lead PI: Ching-An Peng

The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the STEM workforce through the development of highly competitive students from groups historically underrepresented in STEM disciplines: African-Americans, Alaska Natives, American Indians, Hispanic Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders. The goal of the LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Activity is to increase the quantity and quality of STEM graduate students from underrepresented populations, with emphasis on PhD matriculation and completion. BD programs implemented in the nation's institutions of higher education contribute to addressing one of the objectives in NSF's 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, namely to "foster the growth of a more capable and diverse research workforce and advance the scientific and innovation skills of the Nation." The vision of this grant is to provide a national model to produce underrepresented scientists and engineers with doctoral degrees in STEM.

Lead PI: Jerry McMurtry

Polymorphic Games brings together undergraduate and graduate students to create revolutionary new kinds of video games that incorporate principles of evolutionary science.

Funding: Vandal Ideas Project, NSF

Lead PIs: Barrie Robison and Terence Soule

PCN researchers use molecular genetics to understand the biology of Globodera pallida and to develop nematode-resistant potato varieties to reduce the threat of microscopic worms that damage potatoes.

Funding: USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Idaho Potato Commission, Idaho State Department of Agriculture

Lead PI: Louise-Marie Dandurand

Schweitzer Cyber-Physical Systems Security Lab: Securing Cyberphysical systems Analytics, Visualization, IoT, and machine Learning Laboratory of Enquiry - A component if the ICS Cybersecurity Test Bed.

This laboratory is used to perform research on the architecture, design, implementation and evaluation of systems for improving the cybersecurity of cyber-physical control systems, information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) network and software systems, and Internet of Things (IoT) systems. This research includes, among other related activities, the architecture, design, implementation, testing and evaluation of software and combined hardware and software systems for analysis, machine learning, visualization, intrusion detection and avoidance, integration and testing including attack-defend scenarios, of networked digital systems with the purpose of improving the cybersecurity of said or related systems. This laboratory is also be connected to the Idaho Cybersecurity test bed.

Primary PIs: Jim Alves-Foss and Daniel Conte de Leon

IRIC research space is used for undergraduate and graduate research on a 11,700-year-old fossilized mammoth skeleton collected from Soda Springs, Idaho. The mammoth fossils were donated to the university from the Palouse Discovery Science Center in 2019 and is 60-70% complete. Undergraduate research projects would include (but is not limited to): Inventorying the bones and determining correct anatomy to make bone casts, assessing the fossil preservation type and potential depositional environment/cause of death including taphonomic processes, determining paleoclimatic conditions and migration patterns using isotope analysis from the mammoths fossil teeth and creating interactive exercises for students of all ages using the findings from the mammoth in collaboration with the Virtual Technology and Design and Education Departments.

Lead PI: Renee Love

Tracing pollutants, nutrients and elements across a landscape is facilitated through stable isotopes. When using ni quantitative and spatial models, processes such as transit times, age and pathways can be characterized. This project will use this space in IRIC to extract samples for stable isotopic analyses from different matrices (water, sediment, soil, vegetation, etc.).

Lead PI: Zachary Kayler

Tree rings are a historical record that integrates the fields of climatology, geography, geology, fire, and the human dimension. Research into how trees and forests respond to dynamic events in these various field of studies allow us to project how forested ecosystems will adapt to future conditions. This knowledge will help guide the development of management strategies and policy that ensures healthy and productive forested ecosystems.

Lead PI: Mark Kimsey

The UI-FESS research team is designing and building flywheel energy storage systems to evaluate their associated science and technologies. FESSs enable the storage of energy from renewable, intermittent sources such as wind and solar and will aid NASA’s space travel and extraterrestrial colonization missions.

Funding: NASA

Lead PIs: Christine Berven and Herb Hess

The advent of low-cost unmanned aerial systems (UASs, also known as drones) with autopilot capabilities coupled with new software approaches to process aerial imagery into high-quality data products has quickly turned drones into an indispensable tool for research. Drones have democratized the acquisition and use of very-high resolution aerial imagery across disciplines including natural resources, agriculture, water systems, civil and environmental engineering, and education. With current drone technology it is possible to collect timely high-quality, ultra-high-resolution data that just 5 years ago was unheard of.

The potential for UAS to generate research-grade datasets and the low cost of entry has led many researchers to purchase drones for data collection only to discover that flying the drone is the easiest (and most fun) part of acquiring high-quality research data. Regulatory and liability issues, knowledge of photogrammetric principles, training and experience in flying drones and mission planning, and availability of specialized hardware and software to support mission operations are all critical to successfully collecting data with drones. These aspects also cut across disciplinary lines and represent a significant opportunity to leverage the existing drone-related projects and the U of I’s recognized longstanding strength in remote sensing research and expertise to build a common hub to support and encourage the use of UAS in U of I research activities.

U of I's UAS Lab will support the use of UAS in U of I research across all departments. The collaborators below represent the initial organizers of this common facility, but the lab would be available to any U of I researcher. The functions of the UAS Lab will be to provide:

1. Shared Resources – Sharing equipment and sensors was identified as a priority during a recent Drone Summit. This includes drones, sensors, computing resources, and software licenses as well as “support” equipment like high-accuracy GPS, ground control targets, battery chargers, etc. Initially this equipment pool would be created from faculty making existing resources available to the lab. As funding is secured, dedicated pool equipment would be purchased.
2. Fabrication/Repair Facilities – Drones require periodic maintenance and occasional repairs. Often custom mounts must be designed and fabricated for securing sensors to the drone platform. Being in the IRIC gives us access to the fabrication lab for working on drones and for creating sensor/camera mounts. Over time the UAS Lab will contribute to that facility with updated 3D printers or specialty tools.
3. Training/Support – There is an obvious need for resources, knowledge, and support for the regulatory and compliance aspects of flying drones (both FAA and U of I). Even though one of the top “rules” of safe flying is to maintain control of your aircraft, none of the regulatory training actually teaches you how to fly! Both are areas where the UAS Lab plays an important role. As graduate and undergraduate students will undoubtedly be primary pilots of drones for U of I research, there will be continuing need to train new pilots through simulators and “training” drones.
4. Calibration – Usability of drone data in research applications requires knowledge and calibration of sensor properties. This is a basic function of the UAS Lab.
5. Data Management and Visualization – Drone imagery can quickly tax normal computing systems with the volume and size of raw images and derived products. The UAS Lab, assisted by the Northwest Knowledge Network, provides resources and expertise for managing large datasets from drone missions and computing systems for processing and visualizing derived data products.
6. Collaborative Research Space – the UAS Lab provides limited office/desk space for graduate students directly using UAS in their research and will function as a central meeting point for UAS-related projects.
7. Knowledge Hub – One of the biggest advantages of the UAS Lab is the synergy that would come from having people from all over campus meeting/working in a common space and sharing their knowledge and lessons learned. This lab may also contribute to bringing UAS technologies more formally into U of I teaching and outreach.
8. Outreach - The UAS Lab can be also used for hosting hands-on workshops like the Idaho Drone League (iDrone) to promote STEM pipelines across the state where Idaho youth (7th – 11th grade student) will visit and utilize the facility to complete their hands-on project during iDrone events.

Initial UAS Lab Collaborators: The list below represents the core faculty staff that will help organize and launch the UAS Lab. The core collaborators will help define the lab’s structure, governance, and support as well as develop lab and equipment management strategies. There is undoubtedly a broader community on campus that will make use of the lab that will be engaged as appropriate over time. Additionally, external collaborators (e.g., INL) may contribute equipment or share expertise to support the lab.

College of Natural Resources

• Jason Karl (Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences)
• Paul Gessler (Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences)
• Crystal Kolden (Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences)
• Lee Vierling (Natural Resources & Society)
• Arjan Meddens (Natural Resources & Society)
• Jan Eitel (Natural Resources & Society)
• Karla Eitel (Natural Resources & Society)

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

• Jae Ryu (Soil & Water Systems)
• Jason Kelley (Soil & Water Systems)

College of Engineering

• Dev Shrestha (Biological Engineering)
• Ahmed Abdel-Rahim (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
• Mohamed Hefeida (Electrical & Computer Engineering)

College of Science

• Linh Nguyen (Mathematics)

Northwest Knowledge Network

• Luke Sheneman
• Jennifer Hinds
• Gina Wilson

The first project is “Women Farmers on the Rise in the US and Idaho: Understanding and Supporting Women Farm Operators.” This project aims to increase the prosperity of women farmers, their families and rural communities through research and extension activities. The second project is “Understanding and supporting entrepreneurism among rural minority women.” This project will enhance economic opportunity and well-being of women entrepreneurs and small businesses in rural Idaho communities.

Lead PI: Paul Lewin

Interdisciplinary clinical and translational research wet lab space for multiple ongoing collaborative projects. Projects are biomedically focused and include interdisciplinary researchers and clinicians from within WWAMI Medical Education as well as established collaborators in the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Education, Health and Human Sciences. Projects include investigations into Infant immune development, cancer, obesity, circadian rhythms, etc.

This facility will support projects that trace nutrients and water in field and laboratory settings. At larger scales, maps and visualization of soil nutrients and organic matter will be created from data supplied from the core facility in tandem with GIS and remote sensing techniques. Water stable isotopic and nutrient values will be analyzed from samples of groundwater, precipitation, soil water as well as streams and lakes throughout the region. At plot and smaller scales, microbial communities and their function will be characterized in collaboration with IBEST. Additional organismal research includes plant gas flux and preparation of plant and microbial products for compound specific stable isotope analysis. Research that requires a direct connection to the equipment will also be facilitated in the core facility, including microcosm studies and incubations.

Lead PI: Zachary Kayler

Dual-Beam FIB/SEM Laboratory is equipped with a state-of-the art FEI/Thermo SciosTM dual-beam system composes of focused ion beam (FIB) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) columns with ThermoTM EBSD (QuasOr) and EDS (UltraDry) detectors.

It is also equipped with Gold (Au) and Platinum (Pt) sources for deposition.

We provide manufacturing, imaging and metrology services to users in the inland-northwest region of the U.S. at hourly rates set and approved by the Service Center Rate Commission of the University of Idaho. We provide TEM sample prep, SEM imaging, compositional analysis of materials, FIB integrated circuit edits, micro/nano deposition, patterning, etching, drilling and many more service options with our instruments.

This laboratory was made possible in part by the generous donations from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.

Colleges: Engineering

Website: uidaho.edu/engr/research/fibsem

Lead PI: Suat Ay

The IBEST Genomics and Bioinformatics Resources Core serves researchers at U of I and beyond with top-of-the-line tools for genomic sequencing and analysis. GRC staff members assist researchers in designing experiments, writing grants, analyzing results and visualizing data.

Funding: National Institutes of Health

Website: iids.uidaho.edu/gbrc.php

Lead PI: Barrie Robison

This core lab provides access to a large selection of cutting-edge devices for a variety of molecular biology research with a particular focus on extracting and preparing nucleic acids quickly and inexpensively through automation. Usage is open campus wide after a brief and inexpensive training session.

Funding: National Institutes of Health

Lead PI: Samuel Hunter

IRIC Chemical Clean Laboratory provides a dust-minimizing environment for chemical separations and clean sample preparation. This facility represents a unique space at the University of Idaho to support innovative, cutting-edge research. The dedicated space (Room 120J) provides a stand-alone facility for chemical clean laboratory work that provides integration across fields of geochemistry, stable isotope chemistry, molecular biology, hydrology and soils and also provides essential complementarity to the new Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry laboratory on the third floor of IRIC.

The Chemical Clean Lab is a highly purified, regulated room for the preparation of samples that are sensitive to even very low levels of contamination (e.g. dust particles in building air). Lab approaches clean-lab criteria** for operation with minimal air-borne particulates, the laboratory ideally supports 1) HEPA–filtered incoming air that creates a net positive pressure relative to the hallway, 2) controlled access to the room with established protocols for apparel (e.g. clean lab coats, shoe removal, etc.) and 3) graded access to the room through a transitional space for gowning.

Over $130,000 worth of instrumentation and infrastructure equip the room, including two laminar-flow benches, a microbalance with weighing table, and a New Wave micromill for sampling small (i.e. microns) amounts of material from hard samples such as rock, bone or archaeological artifacts.

Primary Contact: Russ McClanahan

The MC-TIMS — Multi-collection Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer— can make precise measurements of isotopes in geologic and biological materials. It is one piece of a new regional interdisciplinary center, the Palouse Biogeosciences Collaborative, which would support a wide array of ecological, biogeochemical and geological studies at UI, Washington State University and Eastern Washington University.

Funding: National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Program, NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), UI Office of Research and Economic Development

Colleges: Natural Resources, Science, WSU School of the Environment

Lead PI: Brian Kennedy