Author name: Stephen R. Sutton

User research facilities around the world offer tremendous opportunities for scientific experimentation by members of the Earth science com- munity. Synchrotron radiation sources, neutron sources, mass spec- trometers, and others represent a powerful force in tackling complex scien- tific problems. In these techniques, Earth materials are bombarded with beams of ions, subatomic particles and/or photons to learn the secrets of their properties and histories. Some of these methods can be applied to nanoscale materials with “desktop” instruments while others require macro- scopic samples and utilize large-scale devices residing in multiple buildings; and there is everything in between.

National and international communities of scientists from a variety of disciplines have been successful in convincing a growing number of countries to construct major user facilities that collectively serve these communities. These user facilities make possible experimental studies that cannot be done in individual investigator laboratories. In addition, they have created a new style of research, in which scientists working in shared facilities conduct studies that benefit from a merging of ideas and techniques from different disciplines. Earth science users of these facilities are growing in number and are benefiting greatly from the multidisciplinary interactions such facilities stimulate and from the unique experimental capabilities they provide.

The past several decades have seen an explosion in the availability of state-of-the-art research facilities, facilities that have been specifically constructed and operated for use by the general scientific community. Earth scientists have recognized the power of these methods for frontier research and are taking advantage of them in increasing numbers. “User- friendliness” is the key that makes these shared instruments very effective components in our arsenal of collaborative and interdisciplinary research tools.