UK Environmental Research and Training Laboratories (ERTL)

Funded by NSF-EPSCoR

Gail Brion of the Department of Civil Engineering and Frank Ettensohn and Alan Fryar of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences received a $2.3 million National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF-EPSCoR) grant.

This award, which runs from March 1, 2002 through February 28, 2005, will establish the UK Environmental Research and Training Laboratories (ERTL), an interdisciplinary, multi-user analytical facility. Along with the new Center for Watershed Environments at Murray State University, ERTL is a component of the Kentucky Environmental Research and Education Consortium (KEREC).

In funding KEREC, the NSF-EPSCoR program recognized the need to enhance the statewide infrastructure for environmental studies. Collaborators on the ERTL proposal included researchers from the Departments of Agronomy, Anthropology, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Chemical and Materials Engineering, Forestry, and Earth and Environmental Sciences; the Graduate Centers for Clinical Nutrition and Toxicology; the Center for Applied Energy Research; the Kentucky Geological Survey; and the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute.

ERTL will include renovated laboratories in the Raymond Building and Anderson Hall for a variety of organic and inorganic analyses, microbial analyses, and stable isotopic analyses.

The organic/inorganic laboratory will include the following instruments:
• two gas chromatographs (GCs) with mass spectrometers (one each for analyses of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds)
• three other GCs (one with dual electron-capture detectors, one with a flame-ionization detector, and one with a thermal-conductivity detector)
• a liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer with a triple quadrupole detector
• a high performance liquid chromatograph
• an ion chromatograph
• an inductively coupled plasma – optical emission spectrometer
• an atomic adsorption spectrophotometer with a graphite furnace
• a mercury analyzer.

The microbial laboratory will include these items:
• laminar flow hoods
• an epifluorescent microscope with digitizing capability
• a spiral plating machine
• an automatic media dispenser
• tissue-culture capability
• molecular hybridization and polymerase chain reaction capability
• a chemostat
• large scale autoclaves
• temperature-control chambers
• a swinging bucket centrifuge
• a stomacher.

The stable isotope laboratory is slated to include two isotope-ratio mass spectrometers for analyses of H, C, N, and O isotopes in waters and solids.

In addition, computer facilities for data processing, statistical analyses, and preparation of reports and presentations are planned.

ERTL will be overseen by a committee of faculty directors and managed by three senior research technicians (SRTs). The laboratories will be open to users from throughout the university. SRTs will be responsible for training and supervision of users, including aiding in the development and instruction of courses in advanced analytical methods. For graduate students who will be running their own analyses, fees will be limited to the cost of supplies.

For more information, contact Gail Brion (257-4467; gbrion@engr.uky.edu) or Alan Fryar (257-4392; afryar1@uky.edu).