New Grant Bolsters Colgate’s Research Capabilities michael@michae… Mon, 12/23/2024 - 08:00 A grant from the National Science Foundation will bring a new field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) to Colgate University, complete with a suite of high-tech detectors that will allow for new research in geology, physics, biology, computer science, and other fields. “[The detectors] are incredibly versatile,” says primary investigator (PI) Martin Wong, professor of earth and environmental geosciences. “So many different things happen when electrons hit a surface, and you can use all those different signals to examine the composition and structure of your sample.”  The $439,805 grant is part of the NSF’s Major Research Instrumentation program. “The goal of the program is to support critical infrastructure for scientific research, but also to train students for high-level research,” Wong says. The equipment will benefit researchers throughout the central New York region as well. Wong has partnered with several co-PIs on the project, including geosciences colleague William Peck and physics professors Ramesh Adhikari and Rebecca Metzler. With a much smaller wavelength than visible light, electrons allow researchers to image vastly tinier objects than possible with an optical microscope. A researcher can get up close to see spores on a fern, hairs on the leg of a fly, nanowires that are a hundred thousand times thinner than the diameter of a human hair, or extremely small computer circuits. Adjusting the magnetic field of the scope can train the flow of electrons in a variety of ways. “You can raster rapidly back and forth across a larger sample or fix it in a single spot to analyze something on the order of nanometers,” Wong says.  Wong’s own research focuses on plate tectonics of how mountain belts form and continents split. “When rocks are hot and deep, they don’t snap or break, but they actually flow like silly putty or saltwater taffy,” says Wong, who focuses his research on an area of the American West called the Basin and Range Province. Wong analyzes samples with a special detector called an electron backscatter diffraction detector, which is able to show how crystals are oriented within it. “That tells us a lot about which directions they were stretching in, the temperatures at which they were doing that, and how deep inside the earth they were,” he says. While Wong is mostly interested in basic science behind such processes, understanding them can also aid in earthquake detection and location of rare minerals. Geology professor Peck focuses his research closer to home, examining the formation of rocks in the Adirondacks Mountains, Ontario, and New Jersey. He’ll be able to use the electron microscope to image samples with something called the secondary electron detector, which is able to display a graded map that differentiates between minerals. For a more in-depth analysis, he’ll use an X-ray energy spectrometer, which can measure the degree that the electron stream excites the atoms within a sample, emitting X-rays that provide a fingerprint of which specific elements are contained within.  Adhikari, assistant professor of physics, works with organic materials. One project, for example, coaxes amino acids to self-assemble into tiny nanotubes; another threads nanoscopic computing components into the veins of leaves. “These bio-based materials tend to absorb the electrons that fall onto them, so you don’t really see that much,” Adhikari says. That problem can be fixed by turning up the voltage of the beam, but that actually damages organic samples. The new microscope, however, can produce high-resolution images at very low voltage without damaging fragile organic components, allowing Adhikari to examine the tiny structures he is creating. Among other uses, he is embedding the nanotubes into a polyester fabric to create a hydrophobic material that can filter oil from water. The leaves can be used to create biodegradable electronic equipment.  The ability to create crisp images at low voltage is also essential for Metzler’s work. The professor of physics studies biomineralization, the process by which marine organisms create shells and other hard materials. Some of her work examines exoskeleton formation by juvenile barnacles, which can be a scant 100 microns wide. “Our current scanning microscope can’t resolve the crystals making up their exoskeletons,” says Metzler, who has previously had to make the 75-mile trip to Cornell to use its more advanced equipment. She also studies other species of clams from the Gulf of Mexico, using the X-ray spectrometer to identify elements, and the backscatter diffraction detector to examine how crystals are oriented within shells in order to examine how climate change affects the durability of shells over time.  In addition to these research applications, the microscope will be used by a variety of faculty across campus, studying everything from volcanic eruptions in the Galapagos Islands to wear patterns of tools at pre-Hispanic archaeological sites. The equipment is versatile enough that it can be used in classroom demonstrations as well as the lab, says Wong. Countless students will use it for thesis projects over the next couple decades; at the same time, exposure to the advanced instrument will help students gain experience that could help them in working with microprocessors, nanotechnology, or mining. “This is a broadly used piece of equipment with all sorts of research and industry applications,” Wong says. “Being trained on it will give students a leg up no matter what avenue they pursue.” Natural Sciences and Mathematics Research News and Updates Faculty & Staff Department of Earth & Environmental Geosciences Department of Physics and Astronomy

Spring 2025 Presidential Speaker Series Contributing Writer Wed, 12/18/2024 - 16:00 Colgate will host a new speaker series for the spring semester sponsored by the Office of the President titled The University and the Public Good: The Role of the American College in Our Time. This series will bring together experts in higher education to discuss many of the issues facing colleges and universities today and to help unpack how the public perception of higher education has evolved through the years. These upcoming events are in the spirit of recommendations made by the Task Force on Institutional Voice, which encouraged the University to take moments of national or global concern as a call to action for developing and supporting opportunities for debate and discourse on campus. All of these events will be streamed live online, starting with the kickoff discussion in New York City with Bret Stephens of the New York Times and Goldie Blumenstyk ’79, who recently retired from the Chronicle of Higher Education as their long-time senior writer. Additional information, including links to stream the conversations online, will be shared with the campus community as the new semester begins.  Thursday, January 23 6:30 p.m., New York Historical Society New York Times Opinion Writer Bret Stephens and former Chronicle of Higher Education Senior Writer Goldie Blumnenstyk ’79 Thursday, February 20 5 p.m., Love Auditorium Eddie R. Cole, author of The Campus Color Line Tuesday, February 25 5 p.m., Colgate Memorial Chapel Presidential panel discussion, moderated by President Casey and including Vassar College President Elizabeth H. Bradley, Grinnell College President Anne F. Harris, and Hamilton College President Steven Tepper Thursday, March 27 5 p.m., Love Auditorium John Tomasi of Heterodox Academy, author of The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism Wednesday, April 16  12:30 p.m., Love Auditorium Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels, author of What Universities Owe Democracy Academics Campus Life Institutional News People News and Updates Alumni Faculty & Staff Student

In honor of Colgate’s Bicentennial year, the Picker Art Gallery is hosting a special traveling exhibition, Koolanga Boodja Neh Nidjuuk (Children Looking and Listening on Country), through June 30. The post Repatriation and Reconciliation: The Carrolup Artworks Return to Colgate first appeared on Colgate University News.

Grafters X Change: Branches and Networks brought together Colgate and local community members, eco-artists, and activists to foster creative community resiliency. The post Grafters X Change Builds Community Resiliency first appeared on Colgate University News.