A List
8/23/04

SLU GETS GRANT FOR CLIMATE, ATMOSPHERIC & AQUATIC MONITORING

CANTON – St. Lawrence University has been awarded a grant of $194,476 by the 
National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation Program to support 
the purchase of weather station equipment; ambient air and aquatic monitoring 
equipment; and analytical instruments for the University's Integrated Science 
Education Initiative (ISEI).
	Principal investigator for the project, entitled "St. Lawrence University 
Acquisition of Instrumentation for Monitoring Climate, Atmospheric and Aquatic 
Environmental Processes in Northern New York, is Assistant Professor of 
Chemistry Ning Gao. Additional faculty who are expected to direct undergraduate 
research activities in the program are Associate Professor of Biology Bradley 
S. Baldwin, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Carolyn E. Johns, Grace 
Fippinger Assistant Professor of Biology Erika L. Barthelmess and Assistant 
Professor of Geology Stephen D. Robinson. The award supports the project through 
July 31, 2007.
	St. Lawrence recently established ISEI to serve as a comprehensive, 
cross-disciplinary program in the natural sciences. The award will support funding 
to complete the acquisition and installation of a networked climate, atmospheric 
and aquatic monitoring program for use as part of the ISEI project, in faculty 
and student research, as well as in teaching. The program includes:
	- A network of three weather stations and portable field sensors to 
monitor local climate and to assist air-quality modeling
	- An air-quality monitoring station in the watershed to support the 
monitoring of acid rain/snow deposition and a wide range of chemical species 
in gaseous and particulate matter in ambient air
	- A mobile network of water-quality monitoring probes that allow for 
simultaneous and continuous monitoring of chemical and hydrological conditions 
along the Little River and for other rivers and lakes of research interest to 
faculty
	- Two research-grade analytical instruments to support the more intensive 
identification and quantification of a wide range of chemical species in the air 
and water samples collected by the monitoring projects
	Data collected through the program will be collected and stored in a 
geographically referenced Natural History Data Repository, as will data from 
faculty and student research projects and data collected as parts of laboratory 
exercises.
	It is expected that the program will enrich opportunities for faculty and 
student research, as well as opportunities for collaborative research by 
student-faculty teams. The data sets generated through the program will also be 
available for use by researchers from other institutions, as well as local schools 
and the general public.
	St. Lawrence's ISEI is based at the Wachtmeister Field Station, located 
on a 76-acre nature preserve on the edge of campus near the Little River.

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