Facilities
Geochemistry Laboratories
Stephen Pekar, Gary Hemming
Geochemistry Laboratories are used for graduate coursework and research. Analyses of elemental and isotopic compositions in water, soil, sediments and biological samples are done in these laboratories. The laboratories are equipped with various instruments for such as P-E Optima 5300 D ICP-OES (S. Pekar/G. Hemming) for multi-elements analysis, P-E Aanalyst 800 AAS (Y. Zheng) for cations and trace metal analysis, Shimadzu TOC – VCPH – SSM 500 (Y. Zheng) for total carbon and nitrogen analysis in liquid and solid samples, JV Horiba FluoroMax-3 Fluorescence spectrometer 3 (Y. Zheng) for humic substances analysis, Hand Held XRF (Y. Zheng/G. Hemming) for elemental analysis in sediments/rocks. The laboratory also houses a DINOEX DX500 (Y. Zheng) ion-chromatograph system (LC20 chromatograph system, GP 40 gradient pump, AS40 auto sampler with AD20 absorbance detector and ED40 electrochemical detector) and various field type equipments for on site water quality measurements dissolved oxygen meters, pH/Eh meters, conductivity meters and a digital alkalinity titrator. The laboratories are also in the process of housing two instruments: Costech Elemental Combustion system 4010 CHNS-O (J. Bird) and HP 5890 Plus II GC (J. Bird). The geochemistry laboratories are equipped with several acid fume hoods, an acid hood capable of hydrofluoric and perchloric acid work. These labs contain a Barnstead/Thermolyne nanopure infinity UV water systems, an Envrion Corp. Class 100 laminar flow hood, a range of balances (Cahn C-33 microbalance, Denver Instrument A-160 analytical balance and a Mettler bench-top), a centrifuge with temperature control, an oven (Lindberg Blue M), an incubator, a freeze-dryer (Labconco), several refrigerators, a shaker, an isotherm water batch, a sonicator and a UV digestor. A Coy anaerobic chamber with a platform shaker is also housed in Geochemistry lab for incubation studies.
Sedimentology
Cecilia McHugh, Stephen Pekar
The laboratory of C. McHugh operates X-ray Diffraction equipment (X-Ray diffractometer with the relevant software, goniometer, and sample changer) as well as the following equipment for sediment processing: (1) Laboratory for heavy mineral separation, (2) Zeiss petrographic microscope with camera attachment, (3) Luminoscope; and (4) Nikon binocular microscope. The laboratory of S. Pekar includes equipment for operating a wet lab as well as processing and preparing samples for stable isotope analysis.
Geographic Information Systems Laboratories
Allan Ludman
The Department has two active GIS Laboratories (14 and 20 station respectively), a smaller ten station laboratory dedicated to student use, and wide-format printing capabilities. We are currently expanding our GIS laboratory hardware with a roaming laptop workbench. This will allow 20 laptops with wireless internet access to be brought into teaching laboratories directly. We believe that this will assist with keeping students “in context” as they work on various experiments. The department currently has various GIS softwares (ESRI, CARIS) installed at the workstations as well as a database of all of the topographical USGS basemaps for the entire country stored on a network server.
Currently under investigation is the use of the available computing facilities during the night. Clock cycles can be used as the computers idle during off hours by meteorologists and hydrologists by taking advantage of parallel clustering technologies and the programming of high-end scientific software. Taking advantage of these assets can lead to supercomputing scenarios and large scale modeling of the atmosphere and hydrosphere.
Microscopy Laboratories
Patrick Brock
The Hitachi Scanning Electron Microscope routinely gives good images up to 20 or 30K magnification. Certification is needed to operate this equipment. The Princeton Gamma Technologies Energy Dispersive Unit is operational. Coupled with these technologies are sputter coaters (gold and carbon).
The petrography laboratory contains a dozen old but operational Vickers polarizing microscopes, and a few newer Olympus scopes. Diamond saws and grinding laps are available for making thin sections. We have class sets of dissecting microscopes for visually anaylizing bulk samples and fossils. Many of the professors have research grade polarizing microscopes and photomicrograph setups
Wide Format Printing
Since 2000, the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences has offered access to it’s 36″ and 42″ wide format Hewlett-Packard printers (that are associated with the GIS Laboratory) to the Division of Science and Mathematics at Queens College. Between then and now, we have assisted with the production of over 250 posters. The purpose of printing to the wide format printer has been limited to Division presentations for scientific and mathematical conferences. The School offers this service with the expectation that replenishment of materials from all users will continue on a regular basis. To aid in the use of the printer, we have setup the following protocols and form:
Preproduction
Preproduction work should be completed at least 2 weeks before the printing of any poster to ensure availability of the printer and technicians.
- All presentations should be produced in Powerpoint 98 or later.
- All should be ready to be viewed on a PC (Mac users should be aware of how to use the “pack and go” features of powerpoint)
- Mac users can also setup a PDF file with the correct page dimensions
- All slides that will be used in the presentation should have their corresponding paper size setup through the Page Setup menu command.
- One of the maximum dimensions for the wide format printer available is 36 inches. The second dimension can be as long as Powerpoint permits (maximum of 56 inches).
- 1.5 inch margins should be given to the presentation to ensure that none of it will be cropped.
- When bringing images and charts into powerpoint, avoid using OLE to bring in images. Linked objects can cause documents to become distorted and even lost during the printing/transfer process.
- Imagery coming from “Macintosh formats” can have unpredictable results due to different formats having unrecognizable header information – causing these files to not be recognized by the printer. Whenever possible, switch over to “web friendly” formats with a maximum resolution of 150 pixels per inch – jpeg and gif formatted files tend to work fine.
- Avoid enlarging web imagery as the images will become pixelated and distorted. This can be checked by enlarging the view to 100% in Powerpoint to see if there is any distortion
- Avoid large swaths of color in the background of the poster – it will use up the limited inks that are available quickly. It will also cause the printing process to slow down to a crawl (posters can print up as fast as 15 minutes and can take as long as 2 hours).
- Put the presentation onto one of the following types of removable media – CD-R, Zip, 1.44 MB floppy disk. Make sure that the disk is PC formatted.
Production
The printers are manned on a need only basis by the two College Laboratory Technicians in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Department. The printers and staff are available for printing only from 9 AM to 4 PM Monday through Friday. All printing jobs will be worked on by appointment only. Appointments need to be made at least 2 weeks in advance. Fill out this form and send it out as early as possible. Walk-ins and urgently needed posters will only be produced on an availability basis of the technicians only.
Upon receipt of the form, the faculty member will be contacted to confirm the printing time and date. The School of Earth and Environmental Sciences does not have the funds to replenish materials on a regular basis. Therefore, depending on the workload requested, we may ask for the reimbursement/replenishment of printing materials. During the confirmation, the pricing for replenishment will be settled.
A technician and at least one of the author’s will need to be present during the printing process to ensure the desired outcome. A neighboring lab for minor corrections to the presentation is available only during non-scheduled teaching hours.
Each poster will have its own nuances (and possible problems) to deal with, depending on the complexity of the graphics as well as splashy undertones – so nailing down a time frame can be tricky. No problems usually mean about 20 minutes a print. We have also worked on a single poster for a complete day – and still, we were not successful.
By default, the type of paper to be used will be 36″ wide, high gloss photo paper. Other printer compatible paper types are available only by self-purchase.
Disclaimer
The School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and technicians that are employed by the School do not guarantee and are not to be held responsible for the finalized printing, quality of product, or quality of paper at any time. The School will not be responsible for data lost during processing. The School of Earth and Environmental Sciences reserves the right to deny printing of materials based on content. The School also reserves the right to stop a printing session at any time for unforeseen circumstances.
Meteorology/Hydrology
Timothy Eaton
The hydrology laboratory is equipped with a Grundfos submersible pump, a Global Water FP-101Flow Probe for stream-gaging, numerous aluminum V-weirs, a Hach DR5000 spectrophotometer for water sample analysis, GPS instrumentation, soil piston corers, augers, soil-moisture tensiometers and a double ring infiltrometer for unsaturated zone studies. Researchers and students have access to on-campus groundwater wells and a meteorological station monitored in real-time by the USGS
Live Weather Station data from the weather station on the Science Building