The University of Idaho is the leading national research university in its state, expending nearly $110 million annually to contribute to society’s health, knowledge and culture through research in the sciences, social sciences, engineering and art. Undergraduate and graduate students have access to the University’s skilled research professors and state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment.
At the University’s new Integrated Research and Innovation Center, researchers and scientists from across universities, government agencies and industries work together to produce solutions and innovations that will propel industry and society forward. Recently, two new pieces of instrumentation in the Center were upgraded with the help of Trust funds.
A Nuclear Resonance Spectrometer (NMR) uses a powerful super-conducting magnet to provide information about the structure, dynamics, reaction state and chemical environment of molecules. Modern NMR instrumentation is essential to research programs in chemistry, biological sciences and materials science. Researchers from across disciplines use this equipment to characterize compounds that may be useful in creating drugs to fight cancer and other diseases, understanding soil structure to see how it effects plant growth and studying useful materials from waste such as potato peels.
A Focused-Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope is used by electrical engineering and geology researchers to add or remove material at the molecular level. This allows them to update circuit boards with surgical precision and examine mineral structures to identify their makeup. This new instrumentation was the first of its kind in the Inland Northwest and is available to researchers at institutions throughout the region.
The Murdock Trust is proud to have partnered with the University of Idaho for more than 40 years in bringing high-caliber research instrumentation to the Inland Northwest.
A researcher uses the University of Idaho’s Nuclear Resonance Spectrometer. 
The University of Idaho’s Scanning Electron Microscope was the first of its kind in the Inland Northwest.
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