Resources

The Global Institute of Sustainability (GIOS) is the administrative home of IGERT, providing staff to coordinate IGERT activities and space for seminars and meetings. GIOS facilities include a large conference room with videoconferencing and computer-presentation capabilities (interactive whiteboard), a large meeting room for workshops and conferences, and the IGERT Synthesis Center. Several IGERT faculty members have office space at GIOS. The Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) project , GIOS Informatics Lab, the K-12 education program “Ecology Explorers,” the Decision Center for a Desert City (DCDC), and postdoctoral scientists and field technicians are based at GIOS. The GIOS Informatics Lab is available to IGERT students.

Additional resources are available to IGERT students throughout ASU: The recently completed W. M. Keck Foundation Laboratory for Environmental Biogeochemistry, built with a grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, houses four mass spectrometers (MS) that will enable virtually any stable isotopic analysis that can be conceived by IGERT students. The multi-user Goldwater Environmental Laboratory (GEL) is equipped with numerous instruments for chemical analysis, including elemental analyzer, two automated chemical analyzers, ion chromatograph, AA spectrometers, GC/MS, and IRMS. The CAP LTER project has specialized field equipment including chemiluminescence detector and gas-flux chambers for trace-gas research, a GPS, micromet stations, and infrared gas analyzers for soil respiration and leaf photosynthesis measurement.

Many CAP LTER/IGERT faculty in the School of Life Sciences have individual labs, although these are increasingly shared among researchers and are made available to IGERT students.  They are well equipped with state-of-the art computers and software for simulation modeling, GIS, spatial analysis, numerical analysis, and graphic preparation; and standard analytical laboratory and field equipment. Laboratories in the School of Earth and Space Exploration are modern and well-equipped, including sophisticated remote-sensing and visualization computer hardware and software. Several faculty members and the LTER program have field vehicles available for IGERT student use, and all departments have meeting and lecture space that can be reserved. The Archaeological Research Institute houses extensive southwestern archaeological research collections and sponsors graduate research opportunities.

Additional labs available for IGERT use: Office of Climatology (School of Geographical Sciences) houses archives of historical weather records for Arizona, the state climatologist, a governor-appointed position, and special network weather and climate data for central Arizona. A computer laboratory is accessible for numerical model simulations (e.g., mesoscale metorologic models) and data archival.  The Survey Research Laboratory (Institute for Social Science Research; 4-10 staff, 6,400 ft²) provides training for graduate students in survey research methods and supports faculty research programs, using a Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing System for all telephone surveys. The Arizona State University (ASU) Library system has more than 2.6 million volumes and is the 27th largest research library in North America and is a depository for U.S. Government publications. The general catalog is accessible by computer via the internet, and major journals are available online to ASU users.