New NSF $59,000 Grant Completes TAMIU Spectrometer for Student Research

            The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded a grant of more than $59,000 to Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) to purchase equipment to enhance students’ research and training.

            “The grant will allow the acquisition of a solids probe for a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer which was purchased in Fall 2013 with funding from the NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program,” said Dr. Qingwen Ni, professor of physics, TAMIU College of Arts and Sciences, department of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics.

            The grant will give TAMIU a complete NMR system—low field NMR, high field NMR, and high field NMR with solid state probe.

            This is the second NSF MRI award principal investigator Dr. Ni has received.

TAMIU co-investigators are Dr. Alfred Addo-Mensah, assistant professor of chemistry, and Dr. Hari Mandal, associate professor of chemistry.

            It is the sixth MRI grant awarded to TAMIU by the NSF.

            The equipment will help faculty and students study and understand the principle of magnetic angle spinning NMR and solid state NMR, pursue and develop bone-related research and learn solid state NMR technology and apply it to a variety of different applications, Ni  wrote in his award summary.

            “This equipment will benefit graduate and undergraduate students in physics, chemistry and bioengineering. It will also be used by a class of 40 undergraduate students each year for the training of critical thinking and research methodology,” said Ni.

            The nearest NMR spectrometer is approximately two and a half hours away, added Ni.

            “Having this equipment at TAMIU means greater availability of this technology for education and training purposes at TAMIU, the Early College High School, and nearby colleges and local high schools,” he said.

            For more information, contact Ni at 956.326.2409 or qni@tamiu.edu or visit offices in Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center, room 373C.

            University office hours are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday – Friday.

            Additional information is available at www.tamiu.edu, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.