Fairmont State University awarded grant to purchase cutting edge laboratory equipment
Fairmont State University’s College of Science and Technology has been awarded $5,000 through the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh towards the purchase of a Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer. The device will be used by the University’s chemistry and forensic science programs.
Drs. Daniel Sadowsky, Matt Scanlon, Jojo Joseph, and Andreas Baur, chemistry faculty, collaborated to receive this grant. In combination with earlier funding secured from the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, the award will help fund the purchase of the FTIR Spectrometer, an instrument used by chemists and forensic scientists to identify chemical compounds and determine the relative composition of a sample.
“We are honored to receive this support from the Spectroscopy Society as well as WVHEPC,” said Sadowsky. “Supplemental funding like these grant programs allow us to furnish our labs with cutting-edge equipment, giving students the margin of excellence they deserve.”
The new FTIR spectrometer will be used by faculty and up to 150 students annually for quantitative analysis, molecular structure determination, and to identify compounds synthesized in the laboratory. The FTIR spectrometer will replace an outdated instrument in the Department of Natural Science’s comprehensive laboratory suite, which includes a gas chromatograph-mass spectrophotometer, a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, an atomic absorption spectrophotometer, a fluorometer, a polarimeter, a gel permeation chromatograph, and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer.
With the new spectrometer, Fairmont State aims to provide undergraduate students with hands-on experience that prepares them for employment and graduate education opportunities.
