About RIGF

The R. Ken Williams ’45 Radiogenic Isotope Geosciences Laboratory at Texas A&M (completed September, 2008) is a 1550 ft2 laboratory complex that consists of a perchloric acid fume hood room, gown-up room, dilution and weighing room, clean general chemistry room (<2000 particles >0.3 μm per ft3 air), ultra-clean chemistry room (<100 particles >0.3 μm per ft3 air). Clean-air workstations in each chemistry lab are better than 100 particles >0.3 μm per ft3 air and two recirculating laminar flow hoods both tested at zero particles. The instrument room houses a Triton thermal-ionization mass spectrometer, an Element XR high-resolution inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometer, and a Photon Machines Analyte 193 laser-ablation system. The radiogenic isotope geochemistry facilities also include separate rooms for dirty/wet sample preparation, rock crushing, and mineral separation.

History

"This lab is vastly different from what was originally proposed. When the faculty were asked to suggest new signature programs in response to President Gates' faculty reinvestment plan in 2003, one proposal made by Ethan Grossman for the Department of Geology and Geophysics was for a geochemistry program."

Luis Cifuentes, Associate Dean for Research