Donations from alumni and interested parties for purchase of additional equipment are actively encouraged to help support the lab and students! Please contact the department head, Bharath Ganesh Babu, to make a donation to the Geography Gift Account for this purpose. To make a larger gift for the support of the whole Geography department, please contact Jason Petrovich which would provide support for this lab as well as all geography courses at Valparaiso University.
Currently, we seek support for the acquisition of the following items:
This is used for grinding samples to a uniform powder prior to pressing them into pellets for XRF analysis. Approximate cost $11,000.Use for the analysis of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur this analyzer allows the rapid testing of samples and could be connected in the future to an Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer for the analysis of isotopes. This equipment would enable us to greatly expand our ability to test soils and sediments for greater nutrient assessment including carbon/nitrogen ratios of soil and compost. Approximate cost $80,000.The physical geography laboratory has grown much since 2017, but it lacks adequate ventilation. This can pose a problem for some oven-based analyses leading to odor issues throughout the building. The lack of ventilation also means doing any chemical reactions or digestions required for more in-depth soil analyses are not possible. Approximate building renovation cost $50,000.