Submitted by:
John S. Ricci
Professor
Department of Chemistry
University of Southern Maine
96 Falmouth Street
Portland, ME 04103 USA
v: (207) 780-4736
e: ricci@portland
Categories:
Research, academic
Keywords:
Innovative or improved ways of doing things
The Story:
The University of Southern Maine is an urban comprehensive university which focuses largely on undergraduate education. As a chemistry professor with a background in chemical crystallography, my research endeavors depend on a long-standing collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island in New York. Experiments involving neutron diffraction are performed there at the High Flux Beam Reactor during summers and between semesters. The thousands of diffraction data that are collected are then used in calculations done with many in-house programs. Since these programs are frequently modified and updated, it is not practical for me to simply bring copies to the University to be used in conjunction with the very large quantities of experimental data. Thus, before the availability of Internet, it was only during summers when 1 could be physically present at the Lab that 1 could make effective use of these programs.
Internet has provided me with a connection to virtually all of Brookhaven’s computers such that it is now possible for me and my students to access data and to perform the calculations from my office in Maine with about the same efficacy as being on site at the Lab.