The Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials (K-ALFAA) is located in the basement of the Gerard P. Kuiper Space Sciences building (1629 E. University Blvd.) on the University of Arizona campus.
FAQ
The Kuiper Building is open to the public from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. To use the facility, users must be trained on instrumentation. Contact one of the laboratory managers and get training. Once approved, access to the building outside of normal business hours can be arranged.
The K-ALFAA is open to all users during normal business hours from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Only those users who have been trained, verified, and/or approved by instrument scientists for after-hours access will be allowed to use instrumentation outside of normal business hours.
Your first step is to contact a laboratory manager to discuss your project. Once the laboratory manager has an idea about your project and its feasibility, you will create a user account. After the user account is setup, you can schedule training on an instrument.
For information about a tour, contact one of the technical staff, instrument scientists, or the scientific director.
For information about Electron Microprobe scheduling and policies, contact Ken Domanik. View the Electron Microprobe Laboratory website for more information.
Instrument time for the SEM, FIB, and TEM is reserved through an online calendar system, which is currently iLab. All users are required to register for an iLab account (directions on how to register will be provided). When training or assisted use is needed, users are required to contact a K-ALFAA instrument scientist to coordinate schedules with them. This requirement is not intended to be overly burdensome, but rather to be considerate of other users’ demands on the time of the instrument scientists.
Instrument reservations can be cancelled through iLab up to 24 hours before the start of the booking. For cancellation after this time, please contact the appropriate lab manager responsible for the instrument.
For information about canceling Electron Microprobe reservations, contact Ken Domanik. View the Electron Microprobe Laboratory website for more information.
When results generated within the K-ALFAA are included within a conference presentation or journal publication, we require that all users to provide a copy of that publication to a member of the laboratory staff, who will include the reference on the publications page. A PDF copy of the paper after it appears in publication is sufficient. We require this in order to keep track of the diversity of research that occurs in the facility as well as the number of publications.
We also ask that users acknowledge the facility in their conference presentations (abstract or talk) and publications (as space allows). A statement along the lines of the following is sufficient:
We acknowledge NASA grants #80NSSC23K0327, #NNX12AL47G, #NNX15AJ22G and #NNX07AI520, and NSF grants #1531243 and #EAR-0841669 for funding of the instrumentation in the Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis at the University of Arizona.
OR
We acknowledge the NASA PSEF, Cosmochemistry, Emerging Worlds, Planetary Major Equipment Programs, the NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program, and the NSF Division of Earth Sciences, Instrumentation and Facilities Program for funding of the instrumentation in the Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis at the University of Arizona.