Science is expensive, but University chemistry professor Les
Butler says it doesn’t have to be.
The College of Science recently announced that Butler and his research group received a $500,000 award from the W.M. Keck Foundation for their proposal to construct an X-ray tomography machine, which scans objects in ultra high resolution by lighting them up against dark backgrounds. The University will match the funds Butler received from the foundation, and researchers across Baton Rouge will be able to use the machine to enhance their own
projects.
“We want to make this technology a lot more available than it currently is,” Butler said.
Butler and his crew subcontracted various parts of the machine’s design from a Belgian company. They will construct it with the help of scientists from New York University and the funds they received from the University and the Keck Foundation. University professor Kenneth Matthews II said the project will likely cost a few million dollars.
This figure might sound large, but Matthews said the cost is reasonable, given that its close relative, the Synchrotron, cost more than $25 million to bring to the University. The machine will be a smaller version of the Synchrotron installed in the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices on campus. The Synchrotron is capable of producing highly detailed
three-dimensional examination of large objects.
“The machine basically works like the ones in hospitals, but the images come out a lot more clearly, and it can be used for a wider range of research applications,” Matthews said.
Butler and his colleagues in material sciences study battery failure, 3-D printers and flame retardation. He said he anticipates the new machine will allow him to make significant advances with his own research.
Butler and his group have already been approached by many people across campus. Butler said the machine will be built by a team of chemists, medical physicists and computer scientists, and as such, it will be able to meet the demands of a myriad of different projects.
In the past, these devices have been used prominently in biomedical engineering. Scientists used the machine’s high resolution imaging capabilities to study materials that can’t be observed with other kinds of technology. This imaging has led to many important discoveries, including materials that allow for instantaneous drug delivery, which reduces the time it takes for medicine to affect the body.
Matthews said making the machine available for all of the
University to use will likely lead to
similar innovations.
“These are more effective at screening for breast cancer and osteoporosis than hospital scanners are, so we expect this to be used for a lot of medical research,” Matthews said.
At least 15 researchers have submitted proposals to Butler and his crew.
“One guy wants to scan artifacts he found in Central America, and someone else will use it to develop more efficient ways of extracting oil from rocks,” Matthews said.
Butler’s proposal also included a request from an ecologist who wants to scan tree bark and a toxicologist who will study contaminants in soil, a growing concern in the bayous of Louisiana.
“I study why batteries fail and why flame retardants fail, and I try to make it so they don’t,” Butler said.
The machine will likely be installed in the Socolofsky
Microscopy Center in the Choppin Hall Annex, though the University has yet to confirm this location. Butler said the project will be completed within three years and will be available to undergraduate researchers and faculty members alike.
“This will basically be open to anyone who’s interested in using it,” Matthews said.
“We want to make this technology a lot more available than it currently is.”