Exploring the Evolving Universe

Mission and Goals

IIRMES has several goals designed to promote and enhance educational and research opportunities for faculty, graduate and undergraduate students and the greater community at large. The major goals and accompanying benefits can be broadly divided into three areas as follows:

 

Research and Scholarly Activity

 

· Promote the cross-application of analytical techniques and foster intellectual exchange between scientists in a broad range of fields in the historical sciences, including archaeology, geology, chemistry, and biology to name a few;

· facilitate the access to state-of-the-art instrumentation for researchers in all fields of academic inquiry including quantitative elemental microanalysis, luminescence dating, and geophysical analysis;

· sponsor colloquia, lecture series and conferences, and promote interdisciplinary workshops by IIRMES scientists and other CSULB faculty; collaborate in obtaining funding for the purchase of instruments, supporting their upkeep, and in facilitating access to the instruments by the broader University community and collaborating researchers;

· promote collaborations with other universities including CSU and UC campuses creating research possibilities for our faculty and students in to some of the leading Ph.D. programs in the country; and help in the recruitment and retention of new faculty members in the natural and social sciences.

 

 

Development of Instructional Programs that provide for Student Training and Research

 

One of the central missions of IIRMES is to promote educational programs and research opportunities for CSULB undergraduate and graduate students.  The founding faculty members of IIRMES already have well established research programs involving both undergraduate and graduate students. These programs have provided students an opportunity to present their research findings at symposia, colloquia and professional meetings and to publish their work in peer reviewed journals.  IIRMES will continue to promote and enhance student research and training by providing:

· exposure to an innovative and highly interdisciplinary environment that promotes cross-training in various disciplines;

· access and hands-on training on state of the art instrumentation to enable students to  combine theory and the use of analytical techniques to solve problems central to the understanding of the physical, life and social sciences; 

· internships and graduate and undergraduate assistantships;

· better connections with regional industry and the private sector thereby creating local career opportunities for our students in the Southern California area;

· funds specifically designated for both graduate and undergraduate student research projects;

· funds to support visiting scholars who will work with students and conduct workshops. 

 

 

Contribution  to Community Service

 

· Develop outreach programs, involving remote access of instrumentation and video conferencing, to promote science education in local schools.  IIRMES places special emphasis on targeting inner urban schools that have historically served underprivileged children with limited access to technological resources.

· Provide analytical services for scientists in industry and consulting firms to help support CSULB‘s undergraduate and graduate programs and defray the institutional overheads necessary to run the facility; 

· pending negotiations with the Deans of other CSU campuses, become a Core CSU facility for Elemental Microanalysis, either within or independent of the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB) initiative.

An oligomictic orthoconglomerate on San Miguel Island, of the coast of Santa Barbara, California.

Research, Education and Community: The Three Goals of IIRMES

Surface collecting ceramics from a late prehistoric village deposit in the Central Mississippi River Valley.

Professor Greg Holk demonstrating the gas extraction system for the Finnegan Delta MAT-XT mass spectrometer. 

Silica cement resolved using a petrographic microscope.