NSF-ARIZONA ACCELERATOR MASS SPECTROMETRY OUTREACH PROGRAM

The University of Arizona NSF-Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory is announcing a program to foster scholarly research in developing nations. The program’s objective is to provide radiocarbon dates at no cost to colleagues who, due to limited funding or limited instrumental infrastructure, would not otherwise have access to accelerator mass spectrometry.

Twenty AMS radiocarbon dates per year will be awarded to successful applicants in the fields of archaeology, geoscience, and environmental science.

Applications are being accepted from Southeast Asian and the Pacific Island nations at this time. Qualifying nations include Burma, Laos, Thailand, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and all indigenous Pacific nations. Australia, Brunei, French Polynesia, Hong Kong, Hawaii, New Caledonia, and New Zealand are excluded.

The Application Process

The application process requires the submission of a brief project description, including a detailed description of the samples, their contexts, and their significance (2 pages maximum). Applicants must also submit an NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory Sample Submission Form and the Dating Agreement Form. These are available on line at www.physics.arizona.edu/ams.

A single applicant may request up to three (3) AMS dates per project, per year. Closing dates are January 1, May 1 and September 1 in each year, and in each round the committee will allocate approximately one third of the 20 dates available for each calendar year.

Successful applications will have several characteristics, crucially:

1) The proposal should show scientific merit and clearly demonstrate that AMS radiocarbon dating is appropriate to address the question at hand.

2) The project's principal investigator should be based in the country in which the project is conducted, and should be directly and actively involved in conducting and completing the project.

Applicants must also agree to publish the dates within scholarly journals and make them freely available to other researchers upon request. Acknowledgement of the program and the NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory in any papers, reports and publications that develop from the project would be appreciated.

For more information, feedback, and submission of applications, please contact one of the following:

Felicia Beardsley Department of Sociology and Anthropology University of La Verne 1950 3^rd Street La Verne, California USA 91750 beardsle@ulv.edu

Peter Bellwood School of Archaeology and Anthropology Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Peter.Bellwood@anu.edu.au

Greg Hodgins NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory University of Arizona 1118 E Fourth Street Tucson, Arizona USA 85721 ghodgins@physics.arizona.edu