University of Arkansas

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Accurately predicting the ecological effects of a warming planet is essential for lessening ongoing economic and societal harm. However, the potential impact of global temperature rise predicted for Earth by the end of the 21st century cannot be studied on the scale of human history alone. Fortunately, essential real-world data on the outcome of rapid and extreme warming is preserved in our planet’s deep-time rock record. Approximately 95 million years ago, Earth transitioned through an interval of global change known as the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum (KTM) with profound repercussions. Global temperature increase during the KTM matches predictions for Earth's near term, making the event a critical case study for our planet’s imminent future. Research demonstrates that during the KTM, 80% of marine life went extinct due to increased ocean temperatures and oxygen starvation. However, scientists do not yet understand the impact of warming on land. Our team of Earth and Life scientists will address fundamental questions about the KTM, producing results directly relevant to society's health and economic well-being. The project will generate freely accessible databases of temperature and precipitation records, species diets, migration and range patterns, plant community compositions, and landscape changes. A sustainable network of labs will use these databases to calculate the duration, rate, and magnitude of extinction and recovery and identify factors affecting ecosystem resilience, such as shifting habitats and destabilizing food webs. A cross-disciplinary postgraduate research exchange program will arm the next generation of scientists with the broad skill sets necessary to tackle some of humanity's forthcoming grand challenges. Finally, the project will increase STEM opportunities for youth via co-created teacher resources and a public science project that empowers secondary school students to contribute directly to scientific research. Approximately 95 million years ago, ecosystems transitioned through an understudied hyperthermal event, the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum (KTM), driven by increasing atmospheric CO2. Global temperature rise during the KTM was triple projections for Earth by the end of the 21st century—making the event a critical case study for predicting tipping points of functional ecosystem decline (economic risk) in as-of-yet unrealized planetary states. Previous studies have documented KTM's marine impacts, including global ocean deoxygenation and cascading extinctions; however, scientists currently lack essential data on terrestrial outcomes. This project will formulate comprehensive, open-access databases that enable cross-disciplinary study of the KTM aftermath. Research will focus on Mongolia's Gobi Basin and North America’s Western Interior Basin, which together preserve the world's richest records of Cretaceous terrestrial life. Data generated will include floral and faunal biodiversity and spatiotemporal records, as well as biofunctional traits such as niche guild, migration and range potential, habitat requirements derived from geochemical analyses, temperature and precipitation proxies, constrained by radioisotopic ages determined using C-isotope chemostratigraphy, eggshell and pedogenic carbonate, and zircon. By integrating across Earth-life systems, the project will tackle a series of hierarchical objectives, including establishing a refined chronology of ecosystem change, calculating the rate and duration of destabilization and recovery, assessing trends and drivers of habitat evolution, and exploring the impact of extreme warming on ecosystem resilience, functional biodiversity, and species threat. Beyond propelling comparative research on ancient hyperthermals, the collaboration will enable a cross-disciplinary postgraduate research exchange program to arm the next generation of scientists with the multifaceted skill sets necessary to tackle grand challenges. Finally, broader engagement objectives will increase scientific literacy and inspire youth to pursue STEM careers via a public science program that enables secondary school students to discover new biodiversity records, contributing directly to data collection and through co-created teacher resources. This project is funded by the BIO/DEB Biodiversity of a Changing Planet (BoCP) Program, the Division of Earth Sciences (EAR) and the GEO/EAR Life and Environments through time (LET) Program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

This award supports participation in the 50th Arkansas Spring Lecture Series on the Fayetteville campus of the University of Arkansas from May 15-17, 2025. The conference focuses on topics at the forefront of current mathematical research: the theory of linkage, residual intersections, and their applications. It features a series of lectures by Bernd Ulrich of Purdue University, along with talks given by other leading experts, including early-career mathematicians. The conference aims to foster collaborative discussions among researchers and provides professional development opportunities for early-career participants. The event also includes a public lecture for the local community. Linkage and residual intersections have been subjects of intense research by mathematicians specializing in commutative algebra since the 1970s. Recently developed techniques from representation theory that have been effective in understanding these concepts will be highlighted at the conference, as well as the connections between these topics and other areas, such as combinatorial commutative algebra. Several open problems will be presented, providing a roadmap for the future advancements in the area. Further information can be found on the conference website: https://math.uark.edu/research/spring-lecture-series/index.php This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

This Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project develops a novel diagnostic tool for power modules used in electric vehicles (EVs) that can improve their reliability and efficiency. Power modules are critical for the electrification of transportation. However, their widespread adoption is hindered by module failures, which can lead to expensive repairs and vehicle downtime. Existing diagnostic methods are limited in their ability to detect the interconnected nature of electrical, thermal, and mechanical faults in real time. This project addresses these limitations by introducing a fault detection method that will enable predictive maintenance, reducing failure rates and extending module lifetime. The technology leverages acoustic wave analysis to detect and predict these failures before they occur. This technology will enable proactive maintenance, reduce repair costs, and extend the lifespan of EVs. Additionally, the project may create new job opportunities in the manufacture, installation, and maintenance of the monitoring system. This project aims to develop a wideband acoustic emission sensing system capable of detecting and diagnosing multiple fault types in power modules, including electrical fault, thermal runaway, and mechanical fatigue. Building on prior foundational research, this project will extend the application of acoustic sensing to power electronics by developing robust sensor systems and data analysis tools for real-time fault monitoring. Advanced signal processing techniques will be employed to identify fault-specific signatures, enabling predictive diagnostics and early fault detection. The research will also include customer discovery activities to refine the technology for practical deployment. By integrating innovative sensing technology with data-driven insights, this project seeks to address a critical challenge in power electronics reliability and support the broader adoption of energy systems. This project will result in advanced power module monitoring, leading to more reliable and efficient electric vehicles. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Data centers play a vital role in modern computing, supporting everything from personal internet use to a wide range of industries. As demand for computing power grows, next-generation data centers must be designed with smarter, more precise integration of technologies to improve processing speed, data handling, and power management. At the same time, data centers are becoming increasingly costly to operate, due to high energy consumption and the use of rare materials—both of which present global sustainability challenges. Emerging technologies, such as chiplets and 2.5D integration, offer new possibilities by closely combining memory, specialized accelerators, and general-purpose processors to achieve significantly higher performance. However, achieving energy-efficient and resource-conscious computing with these new technologies remains a complex challenge. It requires innovative approaches to integrating power delivery and signal integrity alongside computing functions, and combining different materials — such as traditional silicon with advanced components like gallium nitride power electronics and cutting-edge memory technologies. The ECOCHIPLETS project will revolutionize the design of next-generation data centers through novel chiplet and 2.5D integration practices. The project will apply economic concepts such as depreciation to cost and lifetime concerns of systems. This promotes approaches that advance capabilities in newly deployed compute servers. These servers will leverage novel chiplet-based design from the ground up to provide new higher performance and energy efficiency approaches along with often ignored concerns such as thermal, power delivery, and signal integrity, critical for system longevity developed through this project. These results will lead to advances in heterogeneous systems ideal for agile virtual hardware design and heterogeneous integration allowing for collecting data center resources to build virtual or disaggregated resources allowing compute software to match workloads seamlessly to various technologies and heterogeneous chiplets in the same package. This project takes a full stack approach by modeling costs and integrating critical components previously ignored in design and simulation tools, such as power electronics and asynchronous circuits. The result is hardware agility and efficiency with adaptability to new compute algorithms while simultaneously promoting long equipment lifetimes and reducing costs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Animal husbandry has been a cornerstone of human subsistence and economic development for more than 10,000 years, and the domestication of horses nearly 5,000 years ago was a major advancement in the reliance of human societies on domesticated livestock. Today, there are an estimated 60 million horses under human management globally, and in the United States, the horse industry provides jobs for more than 4 million people. Each year, an estimated 27 million Americans ride horses, and 2 million own horses. Although primarily valued for transportation, leisure, and sport today, the earliest domesticated horses played a critical role in the prehistoric development and spread of pastoralism. Horses increased food availability both by enabling the management of larger livestock herds and by directly contributing to human nutrition through milk production. The origins of horse milking are poorly understood, but horse dairy products like koumiss have been a core food tradition in grasslands for thousands of years. The goal of this collaborative and multidisciplinary project is to answer fundamental questions about the origins of horse husbandry and the early economic role of horse dairying in ancient pastoralist societies. Archaeological investigations of early horse management and milking clarify the development of Bronze and Iron Age horse husbandry, which laid the foundation for the rise of historic horse-focused empires and the growth of today’s global livestock economies. By bringing together an international team of archaeologists, chemists, cultural heritage managers, and commercial dairy producers, this project creates new collaborations and business opportunities between academic institutions and the food industry, builds stronger training networks for graduate students in food science and analytical chemistry, and contributes to greater public understanding of the history and science of dairying through cultural events, STEM-based outreach programs, and a museum exhibition. The investigators apply cutting-edge analysis of proteins in ancient human dental calculus (tooth tartar) using mass spectrometry to understand the emergence of horse milk consumption and its rise as a vibrant food tradition. This project tests and refines hypotheses regarding the origins and spread of horse dairying connected to horse domestication and early riding, clarifies the role that social and ecological factors played in the success of horse dairying in grassland environments, and examines the relationship between horse dairying and the dairying of other livestock species. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-05

Modeling and simulation have many research applications, ranging from large-scale national laboratories to industrial applications. The annual conference on Principles of Advanced Discrete Simulation (PADS) is the flagship conference of the ACM's Special Interest Group on Simulation and Modeling (SIGSIM). Aligned with NSF's mission, this conference serves as a vital platform for disseminating research, fostering connections among researchers, and training the next generation of scholars. Student attendance is critical to the research workforce development of this field. In support of national science and engineering advancement, this award supports graduate students in the United States to attend the ACM SIGSIM PADS conference in New Mexico, an EPSCoR state, in June 2025, recruiting from all students accepted into the conference’s Ph.D. Colloquium. The selected students gain opportunities that enhance their career paths and provide essential tools for advancing science in both theoretical and applied research on modeling and simulation. This NSF funding significantly impacts the careers of emerging researchers in modeling and simulation, playing a valuable role in developing the research workforce within the field. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-04

This I-Corps project is based on the translation from lab to market of a cost-effective computational tool that optimizes immunoassay development - a critical process the detection of cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders. This tool addresses the inefficiencies in current immunoassay development by leveraging rigorous physical models to simulate and predict immunoassay performance before conducting costly lab experiments. By replacing guesswork with a data-driven, computational approach, this technology enables faster, more precise, and cost-effective development of highly accurate diagnostic tests. The impact extends beyond scientific innovation, as this technology has the potential to accelerate testing, expand test availability, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. By making immunoassay development more efficient, the commercialization of this discovery has the potential to enhance public health and help bring life-saving treatments to patients faster. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of a physics-based tool that improves immunoassay development. This tool uses advanced computational methods, utilizing free energy calculations based on molecular dynamics simulations, to predict how strongly antibodies and antigens bind. Traditional immunoassay design relies on trial and error, requiring lengthy and expensive laboratory experiments that slow the creation of new diagnostic tests for cancer, infectious diseases, and autoimmune disorders. By applying statistical physics and efficient computational models, this approach improves the accuracy of binding affinity predictions while significantly reducing the time and cost required for immunoassay development. Ultimately, this technology could make diagnostic tests more reliable, faster to develop, and more affordable, benefiting both the healthcare industry and patients. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-03

This project is jointly funded by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program in the Division of Chemistry, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). Martin Edwards of the University of Arkansas will develop the next generation of tools for nanoscale analysis of electrochemical interfaces. Interfacial electrochemical processes are important in a broad range of scientifically and industrially important fields, such as energy storage and conversion, biosensing, and corrosion. Spatial variation in interfacial structure and behavior occurs at the nanoscale. Thus, mapping electrochemical processes on a comparable scale is essential to furthering their understanding and optimization. This project will produce tools that miniaturize and localize measurements that are hitherto possible only on whole electrodes. An annual summer workshop will help develop in-demand skills in multiphysics modelling. Multiphysics modelling creates a computer description of a real-world system incorporating physical and chemical processes. This model allows rapid prototyping, optimization, quantitative interpretation of measurements, hypothesis testing, and more. Workshop participants, ranging from upper-level undergraduate students through faculty, will gain skills that are sought after in both academia and industry. The resources developed for the workshop (step-by-step guides with pedagogical content, recorded lectures, example models) will be publicly available through a web portal. The Edwards lab will develop enhanced electroanalytical tools based upon an electrochemical scanned-probe microscopy platform. The tools will allow control and manipulation of the electrical and chemical environment during measurements. These tools will allow mapping of the current-voltage response of electrochemically active interfaces under a broad range of solution conditions and with ~10-1000 nm spatial resolution. Mapping the heterogeneity of electrochemical interfaces with nanoscale resolution is necessary to understand structure-activity relationships. Varying the chemical environment will assist mechanistic understanding and facilitate new experimental paradigms, with applications in electrocatalyst screening and mechanistic understanding of electrochemical reactions. This project will influence fields including electrocatalysis, energy storage and conversion, sensing, electrosynthesis, corrosion, and electrodeposition. Multiphysics finite element modelling, including the coupled Nerst-Planck, Poisson, and Navier-Stokes equations, will aid experimental design and interpretation of measurements. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-02

A fully electrified transportation is desired for pursuing a green, decarbonized, and sustainable society. The current market share of electric vehicles is still low, mainly due to the insufficiencies of the state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in energy density, cost, lifetime, and safety. To possibly change the situation, lithium (Li) metal batteries (LMBs) hold a great promise, in which Li metal serves as the anode in place of graphite in LIBs. Such switch can significantly increase the cell energy density by about 50%. Nevertheless, Li metal anode has been hindered from its practical application since 1970s, since Li metal is highly reactive to liquid organic electrolytes with the formation of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). The SEI layer is inhomogeneous in compositions and properties while unstable with cell cycling. Even worse, the SEI layer is easy to cause Li dendritic growth during plating. The SEI formation leads to the consumption of both cyclable Li and liquid electrolytes with the increased cell impedance, while Li dendrites risk cell safety and accelerate the formation of SEI. Thus, they are two intertwined daunting issues and challenging to tackle. This Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) EPSCoR Research Fellows project will provide a fellowship to an Associate Professor and training for a graduate student at the University of Arkansas. This fellowship will be conducted in collaboration with researchers at National Renewable Energy Laboratory. To address the above issues of Li anode, the project will apply ion-conducting polymeric lithicones on the anode as surface coatings via molecular layer deposition. The project will further utilize multiscale and cryogenic electron microscopy at NREL to achieve the following objectives: (1) Understanding chemical corrosions of Li metal; (2) Probing the structure-property evolution of the lithicone coatings with cycling; and (3) Advancing fundamental understanding of the protection mechanism of the lithicone coating. The fellowship will establish a long-term collaboration with NREL for understanding the failure mechanism of the Li anode and developing next-generation rechargeable batteries. The research, education, and outreach opportunities derived from the fellowship project will have potential to transform the PI’s career trajectory and have tangible benefits to the home institution and jurisdiction. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

Electrified aircraft propulsion (EAP) plays a pivotal role in reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in aviation, but managing the heat generated by high-specific power motors remains a major challenge. This project aims to develop a cutting-edge cooling technology for electric motors using 3D-printed components immersed in oil. Unlike traditional air or pumped liquid cooling, oil immersion provides direct contact between the coolant and the motor’s windings, leading to better heat dissipation, lower temperatures, and reduced noise. The project will address critical barriers such as the lower electrical conductivity of 3D-printed parts and increased system complexity. Through collaboration with NASA Glenn Research Center, the project will advance the development of efficient, reliable motors for urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles, potentially transforming urban transportation, reducing emissions, and boosting the aerospace industry in Arkansas. The project will also foster collaborations with researchers from different disciplines, including thermal, electrical, and aerospace engineering. Educational outreach will include training a Ph.D. student and involving undergraduates in research, integrating project results into aerospace curricula, and engaging underrepresented students through seminars and facility tours. The outcomes will not only contribute to scientific progress but also support job creation and workforce development in a growing industry. The objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate an immersion-cooled, 3D-printed stator technology for high-specific-power electric motors, specifically an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor. The research will explore three key areas: (1) establishing a performance baseline using traditional motor windings with oil immersion cooling, (2) demonstrating improved cooling with additively manufactured windings designed for high-slot-density and enhanced surface area, and (3) validating long-term motor reliability through predictive maintenance enabled by real-time monitoring. Additive manufacturing will allow for the integration of intricate cooling channels within the motor components, optimizing local heat transfer and improving the motor’s performance. Acoustic sensors embedded in the motor will detect early-stage faults to facilitate maintenance and ensure longevity. By overcoming the challenge of lower electrical conductivity in 3D-printed windings through electromagnetic and thermal co-design, this project aims to achieve superior motor efficiency, reliability, and specific power. This project stands to benefit from the extensive experience and strong expertise of the host site, NASA Glenn Research Center in EAP development and testing. NASA Glenn plays a critical role in the progress of UAM, especially in electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, and provides invaluable expertise and testing facilities for EAP systems. This project will support the principal investigator and a graduate student from the University of Arkansas to visit NASA Glenn and work with NASA researchers to design, develop, and demonstrate a lightweight, effective, and reliable cooling technology for aircraft motors. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-01

The Spring 2025 Redbud Topology Conference will be held at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR on Friday, February 28 through Sunday, March 2, 2025. This conference will bring together researchers from across the United States to discuss current developments in low-dimensional topology. Participation by graduate students and junior researchers will help facilitate their advancement in the discipline and ensure progress addressing fundamental questions in low-dimensional topology. In Fall 2025, a smaller meeting will be held at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, OK at a date to be determined. This meeting will mainly feature speakers from the Arkansas-Oklahoma EPSCoR region and provide an avenue for students in the area to network with regional experts in topology. The research focus of the Spring 2025 Redbud Topology Conference is braids and mapping class groups and their applications in dimensions 2, 3, and 4. There will be speakers with backgrounds in geometric group theory, the topology of 3- and 4-manifolds, and in contact and symplectic topology, all who use or study braid and mapping class groups. On Friday, February 28, there will be a graduate student workshop with several educational talks by some of these speakers. The main research talks will be on Saturday, March 1 and Sunday, March 2. There will also be a lightning talk session on Saturday, March 1 for other participants to share their work. The webpage for these meetings is located at: https://redbud.uark.edu/. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-12

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of an innovative catalytic membrane technology designed to convert lignocellulosic biomass into valuable chemical intermediates such as levulinic acid. This technology addresses the growing need for sustainable and efficient biofuel production by offering a high-yield, environmentally friendly process. The commercial potential is significant as it provides biofuel producers with a cost-effective solution to enhance production efficiency and sustainability. By improving the conversion process and eliminating the need for harsh chemical pre-treatments, this technology can significantly reduce operational costs and environmental impact, making it an attractive option for biofuel producers aiming to comply with stringent regulations and enhance their sustainability credentials. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of the technology. This solution is based on the development of a unique catalytic membrane reactor that employs polymeric solid acid catalysts immobilized on a ceramic membrane substrate. The innovative design involves surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization and UV-initiated polymerization to graft poly(styrene sulfonic acid) and poly(ionic) liquid chains onto the membrane surface. This configuration enhances catalytic activity and stability, optimizing the hydrolysis and dehydration processes of biomass into chemical intermediates like levulinic acid. The technology's environmental benefits and operational efficiency demonstrate its potential to revolutionize biofuel production, making it a valuable addition to the renewable energy sector. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-10

This project models the movement of the Qanirtuuq (Kanektok River), a braided river system in the Yukon-Kuskokwin Delta. The Yukon-Kuskokwin Delta is among the world’s largest deltaic ecosystems, and the homeland of the Yup’ik, Alaska’s largest Native community. The Alaska Native Yup’ik (pl. Yupiit) village of Quinhagak is located at the mouth of the Qanirtuuq, which allows villagers to harvest salmon, hunt moose and sea mammals, and gather salmonberries. As with other areas of the Arctic, the Yukon-Kuskokwin Delta is experiencing unprecedented levels of warming air and water temperatures. Permafrost is melting and the sea ice protecting the coast is receding, impacting Quinhagaks' ability to feed their families. These changes may accentuate avulsions, that is, sudden changes in the river’s course that form new channels drawing flow away from current waterways. Avulsions can cause overbank flow into the floodplain and may ultimately result in the forced relocation of Quinhagak. This project initiates a collaboration between researchers and the Quinhagak community whose aim is to co-develop a database that can track the river's movement, erosion, and subsistence ecosystem, using scientific data and traditional ecological knowledge from the Yup'ik people. The project draws from fluvial geomorphology, remote sensing, traditional ecological knowledge, salmon ecology, and isotopic analysis to monitor environmental and ecological factors critical to understanding riverine ecosystem stability and how these factors will affect the stability of the local salmon population, flooding, and Quinhagak resilience. The team is searching for incipient avulsions, estimating channel bed elevation, determining floodplain inundation, and measuring erosion severity, and coordinating with Alaskan Native land management offices. This planning phase includes establishing community-researcher relationships, finalizing data collection methods, and planning outreach activities. It allows the community to make informed decisions about relocation and serves as a scalable, sustainable approach for other rural Alaskan communities. This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program’s Track A. Climate and Environmental Instability - Building Resilient Communities through Co-Design, Adaption, and Mitigation and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-10

This Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) Stage 1 project will fund research that addresses the pressing challenge of providing diverse transportation options for older adults (aged 65 and above). The goal is to create user-friendly tools and applications that help older adults find safe, reliable transportation to essential destinations like medical appointments, grocery stores, and recreational activities by leveraging existing community resources and social networks. Social networks play a crucial role in facilitating mobility for older adults, emphasizing the importance of community-based transportation solutions. By improving understanding of how these networks and resources influence transportation options, the research project will strive to develop new transportation solutions that better meet the daily needs of older adults. The research project, titled Mobility and Aging in Collaboration (MAGIC), aims to enhance the quality of life for older adults by increasing their accessibility to essential services, thereby promoting independence and well-being. Additionally, the project will foster partnerships among academia, transportation professionals, and civic operators, and provide educational opportunities for students from underrepresented groups in engineering. The overarching objective of this research project is to determine the degree of impact of a collaborative transportation service on the independence, well-being, and quality of life of older adults. This objective will be accomplished by developing and implementing a collaborative transportation platform for older adults. This platform will optimize the coordination of existing community resources and social networks to create a new collaborative mobility option by applying information technologies, artificial intelligence, and operations research techniques. The specific objective of this planning grant (Stage 1) is to strengthen collaborations with relevant stakeholders, clarify the roles of academic and civic team members, and refine the vision and plan for executing this research-centered pilot project. This research will advance our understanding of the potential of social networks and community resources in addressing transportation challenges faced by older adults. The project will also provide local transportation providers with a low-cost solution to integrate their services, addressing the resource allocation challenges they encounter when serving these disadvantaged demographics. This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program’s Track B. Bridging the gap between essential resources and services & community needs and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-10

The explosive growth of ubiquitous communications and computing imposes unprecedented challenges on system security and user privacy. These challenges motivate the development of anonymous communications, which aim at guaranteeing reliable communications between legitimate users while simultaneously concealing information regarding the identity or activities of a given user. This project seeks to advance the theory and practice of anonymous communications by systematically exploring and gaining a better understanding of communication radio frequency (RF) fingerprints, which are unique hardware imperfections inherent in all communication devices. RF fingerprints can be used to reveal the identify or track the activities of communication users, thus they are critical for preserving the security and privacy of communication systems. The project's novelties mainly reside in achieving anonymous communications by concealing RF fingerprints. Such a hardware-based approach is drastically different from existing technologies that solely rely on software-implemented encryption or authentication, while revealing little or no attention to important identity-revealing hardware characteristics. The project's broader significance and importance are improving the security and privacy in emerging applications like smart grids, Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous driving, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Results obtained from the project have the potential in reshaping the way individuals interact and communicate in the digital age, and they hold the promise to enhance privacy and empower individuals to engage in open discourses. This project advances the theory and practice of anonymous communications with RF fingerprints through three research thrusts: (i) developing statistical models and identification methods for RF fingerprints, (ii) achieving untraceable communications by concealing the identity of RF devices, and (iii) developing a large-scale RF fingerprint dataset with a large number of heterogeneous wireless devices under various wireless standards. Results from the proposed research will be validated by using extensive data collected from a new RF fingerprint test-bed with real-world wireless devices. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Tree ring reconstruction of paleoclimate in the tropics is challenging because tropical trees rarely have reliable annual banding. Consequently, the climate history of tropical areas like the Amazon of South America is poorly known, including how recent flood and drought extremes are typical of natural climate fluctuations, or if they are attributable to global climate warming and deforestation. Cedrela odorata has been demonstrated to grow annual rings that can be used to reconstruct wet-season precipitation in the eastern Amazon. This project will use C. odorata and historical records to create a 250 to 300 year long record of rainfall extremes in the eastern Amazon, constrain the elevations of high and low river levels in the 19th century, and use climate and water cycle models to determine what are the physical mechanisms that govern the occurrence of floods and droughts in the region, including the impact of deforestation. The project will also investigate the paleoclimate potential of another species, Denezia excelsa, develop an outreach and education website on the forests and climate of the Amazon, and lead workshops on tree ring dating methods. The amplitude of difference between the seasonal high and low flows of the Amazon appear to be increasing, however in the absence of a long-term record of high- and low-stands through time, it is not clear whether these recent observations are within the range of natural fluctuations, or if anthropogenic climate change or deforestation play roles. This project will use new tree-ring records of hydroclimate and historical records from the Brazilian Digital library to reconstruct Amazon River extremes through time. The physical mechanisms behind drought and flood extremes in the Amazon, including Pacific and Atlantic sea surface temperature forcing and the potential role of a fully forested vs partially deforested watershed will be explored with the Community Earth System Model Version 2.1 (CESM2.1). Climate model output will be input into a hydrologic model of the Amazon River system for the spatial reconstruction of 19th century high and low flow extremes identified with tree-ring and historical information and to test the impact of forest cover loss on river levels in the Amazon. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

This Industry University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) award funds the planning phase of the University of Arkansas (UA) in their activities to join the proposed Center for Infrastructure Security in the Era of AI (ISEAI). George Mason University (GMU) is the lead site of the Phase I proposal for creating ISEAI. After successful completion of the planning phase, the (UA) proposers will be eligible to submit a site addition proposal to join an existing IUCRC. The ISEAI seeks to promote widespread adoption of its research outcomes, thereby improving national security and resilience against threats. When realized, the ISEAI Center will conduct applied research at the forefront of infrastructure security using advanced AI techniques, significantly contributing to the intellectual landscape. It aims to generate cutting-edge insights and solutions that address current challenges and deepen the foundational understanding of evolving threats from traditional and AI-enabled malicious actors. By developing practical solutions, the ISEAI Center effectively bridges theoretical advancements with real-world applications. This planning grant will help the UA site enhance research and education at the intersection of infrastructure security and AI. When created, the ISEAI Center will have substantial societal impact by enhancing the resilience of critical infrastructure systems. Through innovative solutions and active student involvement at all levels, the Center will contribute to workforce development and foster a skilled talent pool. Furthermore, ISEAI will commit to technology advancement and transfer, integration of research outcomes into practical industry applications, drive innovation and economic growth and address societal needs, thereby bolstering national security, resilience, and well-being. This planning grant will facilitate closer interactions between faculty and students at UA, with industry. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

The broader impact of this I-Corps project is the development of a heart muscle cell model platform that can mimic healthy and diseased human heart muscle. Currently, one-third of all new drugs fail due to toxic effects on the heart. This platform is designed to be used to predict how emerging pharmaceutical drugs may interact with the heart. It is known that drugs can change the rate and regularity of the heartbeat and current testing, which is mostly done in animal models, may not be enough to predict toxicity in humans. This technology may benefit pharmaceutical companies that develop and screen muscle-targeting drugs; medical researchers who conduct disease progression, toxicology screenings, and treatment impacts research in universities, research institutes, and pharmaceutical companies; and cardiologists looking for personalized drug screening for their patients. In addition, this model may lower the cost of prescription drugs, serve as a tool for more inclusive research, and impact patient outcomes. This I-Corps project utilizes experiential learning coupled with a first-hand investigation of the industry ecosystem to assess the translation potential of a cardiomyocyte-on-a-chip drug discovery platform. This benchtop model uses co-cultured human cells designed to simulate healthy and diseased human heart muscle and a piezoelectric material that allows for the measurement of the conversion of the cells’ contractile strength to a corresponding numeric output. This technology reduces manual data analysis time and may result in decreased human bias in the results. In addition, the use of multiple types of human cells makes this a more relevant platform compared to animal models. Testing has demonstrated that the solution may be used for drug toxicity screening, to fill data gaps in disease progression and treatment, and for collecting data representing patient diversity. The technology may provide a quantitative and physiologically relevant solution for non-invasively detecting contractility of cardiac muscle cells to predict how emerging pharmaceutical drugs may interact with the heart. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-09

Pine trees are vital both commercially and ecologically, with many industries around the world relying on their lumber and pulp wood. In the United States, pine trees make up a large majority of the lumber output, playing a critical role in the forestry industry. Understanding how rainfall affects pine trees is crucial for industry and conserving habitats under a changing climate. This project explores how pine trees have adapted to manage water on their needles. Water on needle surfaces can block tiny pores needed for gas exchange, which is essential for photosynthesis, and make the trees more vulnerable to disease. By combining experiments, ecological data analysis, and predictive modeling, we will decipher the interplay between needle shape, surface properties, and elasticity in their ability to passively shed water. This research will enhance our understanding of how pine trees adapt to different environments and improve our knowledge of ecosystem resilience in the face of a changing climate. Ultimately, this research will revolutionize our understanding of pine needle function and shed light on the physics of fluid interaction with flexible biological structures. Pine needles represent an extreme end of the spectrum of global leaf form and function with highly elongated filament-like foliage. This project will experimentally decompose needle/drop interactions into their fundamental components: fiber elasticity, wettability, surface profile, impact geometry, and needle vibration. We will conduct focused laboratory experiments to define how Pinus traits are tuned against liquid mass retention. Using a phylogenetic comparative approach, we will examine the pertinent test variables to reveal how Pinus traits vary in response to environmental factors before exploring a greater morphological trait space with predictive modeling. In this way, empirical experimentation will provide informative priors for conducting phylogenetic comparative analyses, which will expand our taxonomic and phenotypic scope. Results from these analyses will then be used as inputs for predictive modeling of trait interactions, which will in turn refine our mechanistic hypotheses of trait-trait interactions permitting rigorous examination of trait evolution in response to environmental stressors. This novel approach creates a template for fusing experimental data, new physical insights, and phylogenetic comparisons with multivariable regression to explore optimums, trade-offs, and limitations in Pinus foliage. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

River channels constructed by the movement of water and sediment act as the fundamental plumbing for civilizations. The channel networks that cover river deltas can take many shapes or topologies. Sometimes, they branch and reconnect to form loops within the network. Some networks have many hundreds of such loops. Existing theory suggests that loops should be unstable: part of the loop should fill with sediment. However, loops have persisted on some river deltas for centuries. This project will explore what keeps such loops stable, and systematically study this fundamental component of many coastal landscapes. The project will analyze loop stability with three complimentary approaches. First, a theoretical derivation will be developed to predict when loops can maintain stability: what flows allow all the channels in the loop to remain open and not choked with sediment? Second, a channel network with a loop will be constructed in the laboratory such that the equilibrium conditions of water and sediment transport can be measured for any imposed flow pattern. Third, model outputs from the heavily monitored Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California will be used to test the theory for a real delta that displays many loops. By considering these three disparate approaches, the researchers anticipate an improved understanding of loops in channel networks that is general enough to be applied widely. This project was jointly funded by Geomorphology and Land-Use Dynamics (GLD), Division of Environmental Biology Ecosystem Science (DEB) and EAR EPSCoR funding. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Animals are covered in microbes. For example, the microbes in and on the human body number in the trillions, outnumbering our own cells. Sea turtles, whales, dolphins, and manatees represent some of our most cherished marine megafauna, and these, too, are covered in diverse microbes. These microbial communities are essential to protecting these animals from infections and disease and include bacteria and diatoms, a group of microscopic algae that produces 20% of Earth’s oxygen. Microbes represent most of Earth’s biodiversity, but most of these species are yet to be discovered. This project will document the diatom and bacterial species living on marine megafauna, describing and naming many new diatom species for the first time. Genome sequencing and characterization of the chemical environments will show how the diatoms are related to one another, how they move between host animals, and how they interact with bacteria to use the unique resources offered by their hosts. Since many of these diatoms reside only on threatened or endangered animal species, the fates of these microbial communities are tied to their hosts. The discoveries made through this project may allow researchers to grow these diatoms in the lab, creating a permanent living record should their hosts suffer extinction. The project will provide cross-disciplinary training for students, preparing them for jobs in industry or academia. A documentary film will introduce the complex microbial communities studied in this project to a general audience. Through this project, an estimated 50 diatom species will be documented and described, doubling the number of known epizoic diatom species. Genome sequencing of cultivable and uncultivable species will be used to place epizoic diatoms onto the broader diatom phylogeny, which will provide a framework to: (1) infer how many times free-living ancestors have colonized and diversified on animal hosts, (2) reveal patterns of host switching to discern epizoic generalist and specialist diatom species, and (3) characterize mechanisms of host specialization in one model lineage that speciated and underwent a radical trophic shift following a host transition. The broad phylogenomic framework, combined with complementary metagenomic, metatranscriptomic, and metabolomic profiles will reveal the role of host skin microbiome in shaping trophic strategies and other adaptive changes by diatoms, factors that likely combine to facilitate or constrain host switching and speciation on evolutionary timescales. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Forests and streams are intimately connected by the sharing of carbon as vegetation and animal biomass, such as leaf litter inputs to streams. Still, the land and the stream are often studied in isolation, which can lead to fundamental misunderstandings of how changes in one system impact one or both systems. Globally, salinization is a current major change in both terrestrial soil and freshwater systems. Salinization can change water quality and drinking water suitability, carbon storage and quality, and plant productivity. Freshwater salinization often begins through terrestrial salinization from human activities like urbanization, agricultural practices, and road salting. Yet, predicting how salinization alters carbon inputs across riparian-stream boundaries is not yet possible. This research will quantify how salinization, which can both subsidize and stress organisms, alters carbon processing across terrestrial-aquatic boundaries, through field work and experiments. The project will also examine the relationship between terrestrial and aquatic salinity in part from the collaborations of crowd-sourced k-12 teacher data. This project will also support three female PIs, mentorship of three graduate and four undergraduate students, support three REU students, and incorporate public participation and awareness through citizen science. This research will identify fundamental principles about how aquatic and terrestrial systems will respond to increased salinization. This project will quantify how sodium chloride inputs to riparian zones and streams interact to alter decomposition, secondary production, gross primary productivity, ecosystem respiration, and net ecosystem production in both terrestrial riparian and aquatic stream ecosystems using experimentally paired riparian-stream mesocosms and a field decomposition study across a sodium gradient. The responses are expected to follow a subsidy-stress model. Sodium chloride (NaCl) should act as a subsidy and increase these processes up to some optimal threshold because Na is a biologically essential nutrient. After which, these processes should decrease as Na becomes a stressor at sub-lethal levels and a toxicant at higher levels. The primary objectives are to 1) measure and quantify field terrestrial-stream relationships using a decomposition study that concurrently measures soil and stream chemistry across a large salinization gradient (electrical conductance ranging from 30-1200 micro Siemens per centimeter), 2) experimentally determine how soil salinization impacts terrestrial-aquatic carbon exchange across a gradient of salinization in novel paired terrestrial riparian-stream mesocosms, and 3) quantify the field-mesocosm relationship to determine the congruence of experimental mesocosm- and field-measured decomposition rates across a salinity gradient. Using a combined terrestrial-aquatic approach is essential to understanding, predicting, and ultimately mitigating negative salinization impacts on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem structure and function. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-08

Mathematical breakthroughs in the 20th century revealed that four-dimensional spaces are more mysterious than spaces in any other dimension. One of the best ways to study these spaces is to break them into smaller pieces and examine the knots and surfaces within. One way of distinguishing spaces is to determine surfaces of least complexity, for example, “minimal genus”. This project focuses on minimal genus questions in a variety of contexts. The PI brings expertise in Heegaard Floer theory, which has proved effective at addressing these kinds of questions. As part of this project, the PI plans to organize a yearly colloquium and special lecture for the Association for Women in Mathematics Student Chapter at the University of Arkansas. Additionally, the PI will co-organize a regional conference in topology and geometry that serves the EPSCoR regions of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and beyond, and continue to lead the Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools (MOEMS) team at the Fayetteville Public Library. Minimal genus problems are central to the study of low dimensional manifolds. The project addresses variations of the minimal genus problem and its broad implications. The PI will study the relationship between the knot concordance group and the homology cobordism group. The PI will address the existence of deep slice knots in contractible 4-manifolds. The PI will study an analog of the Thurston norm for knots in rational homology spheres. The PI will develop bordered Floer techniques to study knots that are not freely equivariantly slice. Finally, the PI will study minimal genus problems in the context of contact topology. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-06

This IMPRESS-U project is jointly funded by NSF, Latvian Council of Science (LCS), US National Academy of Sciences, and Office of Naval Research Global (DoD). The research will be performed in a multilateral international partnership that unites the University of Arkansas (US), Riga Technical University (Latvia), and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine). US portion of the collaborative effort will be co-funded by NSF OISE/OD, EPSCoR/OD, and MPS/DMR/EPM programs. PART 1 - Progress in science, economy, national defense; fundamental issues, project advances the field, supports education and diversity, or benefits society. U.S. dominance of Night Vision technology, once considered “the single greatest mismatch of the Gulf War”, is now in question. In the face of stepped-up international investment, U.S. innovation in night vision technology has largely remained unchanged and the U.S. advantage has been shrinking. This award supports research led by the University of Arkansas to help address this gap through discovery and development of a new and novel family of semiconductors, alloys of SiGeSn, that can potentially beat all current IR technology on both cost and performance. The outcome will have a significant impact on the military ability to see better at night and allow storing and sharing of images wirelessly with other warfighters at a different location, ship, or aircraft. Providing such tactical advantages of night operations to the soldier, aircraft, missiles, drones, robotics of any type, is a key factor in determining the outcome in conflict and perhaps even preventing conflict. The issue, however, is that efforts to realize this potential, have been significantly challenged by the difficulty of fabricating (Si)GeSn with sufficiently high Sn concentrations and crystal quality that are needed for creating a direct bandgap semiconductor with high performance. Currently no one has been able to demonstrate SiGeSn with high Sn content and high-quality material. In partnership with Ukrainian and Latvian scientists, the goal of this research is to demonstrate two new and novel “Synthesis Methods” for the fabrication of (Si)GeSn thin film semiconductor alloys that manipulate the position of Sn atoms within the thin film to achieve (Si)GeSn with low misfit dislocations and high Sn content for the first time. Achieving this goal will have an impact beyond national defense since the country that leads in advanced semiconductor IR imaging technology will also lead in the race to market nearly all new game-changing military and civilian IR imaging technologies, from ground to space warfare to cell phones to medical imaging. It also enhances US competitiveness in new and exciting industries from self-driving vehicles to robotics to surveillance to medical imaging. From this perspective, the SiGeSn semiconductors semiconductor is the ideal new material to advance night vision imaging due to greater capability to engineer the bandgap, longer carrier lifetime, larger absorption coefficient, and lower dark current, all adding up to higher sensitivity. An additional advantage is that SiGeSn is compatible with current Si technology resulting in lower production cost compared to current IR imaging systems. These factors emphasize that the advantage of SiGeSn is that it can potentially beat all current technology on performance and cost, - an advantage for each soldier on the battlefield and each American in everyday life. PART 2 - Goals and scope, methods and approaches and potential contribution. The objective of this proposal is to overcome current roadblocks to developing high quality, thin film, stable (Si)GeSn alloys on Si for lighter, faster, higher signal-to-noise, and more energy efficient 2-5 µm infrared devices as the next generation of infrared technology. While (Si)GeSn is an exciting new semiconductor possibility, efforts to realize its potential through traditional growth methods by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) are challenged by the difficulty of fabricating (Si)GeSn with both the needed Sn concentration and high crystal quality. The issue is that a Sn content greater than 6% Sn is necessary for an indirect-to-direct bandgap transition, which is critical for high optical emission, and a Sn content of ~ 20% Sn is needed to span the near and mid infrared (IR) spectral range. However, at Sn concentrations greater than ~ 10% Sn, due to a significant lattice mismatch between SiGeSn and Si and the low miscibility of Sn in Si (1%), the material develops a high density of misfit and threading dislocations defects, followed by Sn segregation, resulting in high optical losses limiting optical applications. Currently, no one can deliver high Sn content and high material quality, limiting application. In contrast to these more traditional growth approaches, this project integrates the unique expertise and capability of US, Ukrainian, and Latvian scientists to explore a totally new route to extend the Sn content while maintaining high-quality. The proposed methods rely on the epitaxial growth of fully strained high-quality (Si)GeSn with Sn content of about 10% Sn. This is followed by applying two novel methods to redistribute Sn within the thin film to increase the Sn content from 10% to ~20% locally without misfit and threading dislocations and Sn segregation. The research partnership to fabricate high-Sn high-quality (Si)GeSn directly on Si substrates makes “monolithic integration” and large-scale manufacturing possible, and at lower cost. The impact reaches well beyond the obvious military applications, impacting high-speed photonics, medical care, surveillance, search/rescue, self-driving vehicles, meteorology, and climatology, each today experiencing an increasing reliance on IR detector technology. Beyond technology, the project will impact developing an engaged semiconductor workforce and strengthen the research, education, and innovation ecosystem. Education will focus on training students who will be experts in semiconductors, the design of novel devices, fabrication principles, and the equipment used to manufacture those devices. Moreover, SiGeSn is a cutting-edge enabling technology that can both give birth to new industries and dramatically transform existing ones, creating opportunities for economic growth and job creation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Awards · FY 2024 · 2024-06

This project replaces an older, shared, liquid helium dependent, Fourier transform mass spectrometer supporting science, engineering, and technology users, with a modern system based on adequate resolution and cost-effective advanced technology at the Arkansas Statewide Mass Spectrometry Facility. Measurements will be conducted based on more accepted or tandem processes and without further reliance on liquid helium. For newly created materials, or anthropological artifacts, accurate measurement of individual molecules' masses will be used to confirm material composition, allowing enhanced identification. For researchers studying membranes and filters, substances fouling, clogging, or passing through the filters will also be characterized, but with the addition of separation techniques that simplify analysis and add diagnostic retention times. For investigators studying toxin remediation, such as “forever chemicals”, high sensitivity will allow them to confirm the efficacy of remediation and identify degradants, helping ensure that toxins are destroyed rather than inadvertently converted from one toxic form to another. Other Arkansas and regional researchers, startups, small businesses, or educational users, including students, will benefit from the use of these capabilities and the newly acquired ability to differentiate materials based on their shape/size, not just the mass. The research team proposes to acquire a state-of-the-art quadrupole/time-of-flight liquid chromatography-based mass spectrometer to replace a 17-year-old Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance system with a low duty cycle. The older system was not compatible with on-line chromatography or modern data driven scanning, collecting only one spectrum per analysis. The replacement instrument provides many capabilities concurrent with adequate resolution (75K) and accurate mass measurement. These include high performance liquid chromatography, electrospray, and atmospheric pressure ionization, low picogram sensitivity, data dependent and data independent analysis, matrix assisted laser desorption ionization, fragmentation by collision induced dissociation or electron transfer dissociation and ion mobility spectrometry. The proposed instrument will end the need for liquid helium use in mass spectrometry. Research groups in academia and industry and users across departments, colleges, and the state will benefit from access to continued or enhanced high resolution accurate mass analysis, whereas the ability to support research by engineers and chemists and in support of the NSF funded Membrane Science Engineering and Technology Center at the University of Arkansas will be more transformative. Overall, all STEM users of the Arkansas Statewide Mass Spectrometry Facility will benefit from the acquisition of this instrument. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.