Furman University announced July 26 two of its chemistry professors, Mac Gilliland and Mary Elizabeth Anderson, received a $1 million grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation to support their air-particle research.
The chemists will use the funds to work with a dozen Furman undergraduate students and a team of engineers and scientists at 908 Devices in Boston to create a prototype of a portable, lightweight mass spectrometer for analyzing chemicals in the air.
Once complete, the instrument will be used for air monitoring in industrial, hazardous and environmental scenarios. It could be used, for example, to detect a leak in a factory before it becomes dangerous, or to monitor emissions from pine trees as the climate changes.
Gilliland, Anderson and their team expect to have a working instrument by December 2026.
“We are extremely grateful to the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation for this award,” Gilliland said. “This award affords us the chance to do excellent science and technology development, and it gives our students hands-on opportunities to do research and interact with industry in ways students at many universities are unable to do.”
Beckman also granted two other awards for the design of different mass spectrometer devices at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Washington.
