NSF awards UAF $877,501 for mass spectrometer to support fisheries and minerals research

The National Science Foundation awarded the University of Alaska Fairbanks $877,501 on July 16 to purchase a high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, an instrument that enables precise measurement of isotope and elemental ratios at low concentrations in environmental and laboratory samples.

The three-year project runs August 2026 through July 2029, administered through NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program. UAF's existing Advanced Instrumentation Laboratory and Water and Energy Research Center already provide analytical tools for research and instruction; the new instrument would extend that infrastructure into precision isotope work.

The NSF abstract identifies research applications including aquaculture, environmental toxins, critical mineral extraction, marine carbon sequestration, ocean particle fluxes, geochronology, and paleoceanography. The award is issued through the NSF Directorate for Geosciences as a standard grant.

The award is structured to build the research pipeline as well as the instrument base. Early-career faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students are identified in the NSF abstract as direct beneficiaries of access to the equipment.

Laura M. Whitmore, the project's principal investigator at UAF, will lead the acquisition.