The mission of the SoMF is to provide the infrastructure and centralized resources for students and faculty across campus in support of their research and educational goals. The facility also welcomes collaboration efforts with other universities as well as industry.
- Instrument training can be arranged once a training request is submitted on iLab and approved by a SoMF staff. The amount of training required varies from instrument to instrument.
- Users are responsible for collecting the data from their measurements. Softer Matter Facility will not be responsible for data loss/damage once the user leaves SoMF building.
- Faculty will be invoiced at the end of every month for instrument use, supplies, training, and consulting.
Acknowledgement Policy
SoMF users who have incorporated data obtained from SoMF resources into publications and presentations will acknowledge the SoMF facility and personnel who contributed.
Research carried out in part or in full using SoMF facility will thus fall into one of two categories, with services and/or contributions requiring the following acknowledgements:
- Use of SoMF facility (PI and associates carrying out the research) and contributions of SoMF staff that include development and implementation of original techniques, experimental design, interpretation, or other significant intellectual input require co-authorship and acknowledgement of facilities. The following acknowledgement should be used: “Use of the Texas A&M University Soft Matter Facility (RRID:SCR_022482) is acknowledged.”
- Provision of routine procedures and methods by SoMF Staff requires acknowledgement of facilities and individuals in the resulting publications. The following acknowledgement should be used: “Use of the Texas A&M University Soft Matter Facility (RRID:SCR_022482) and contribution of Dr. ____________ are acknowledged.”
It is important that you properly acknowledge us using the above RRID moving forward. This will help us find publications who have used our facility easily. Additionally, we cannot continue to exist and be valuable to the Texas A&M University research mission without acknowledgements that prove our worth.
Damage to an Instrument & Consumables Policy
In the event of damage to an instrument or expensive consumables (e.g., TGA pans) that clearly resulted from a user’s failure to adhere to established operating protocols and training instructions, the PI of the user group will be expected to pay for repairs not covered by service contracts. The staff will notify the PI of the incident and charges.
DSC/TGA/DMA/GPC Equipment Usage Policy
- To make changes regarding equipment scheduling, users should reach out directly to SOMF staff via email, and not through iLab system.
- These systems are in high demand and also very time-consuming. Therefore, please bear with us as we are doing our best to accommodate everyone’s needs.
- For time-sensitive samples, users will have priority if they already reserve the time. However, this also needs to be communicated with SOMF staff ahead of time, and users must put a note on the computer saying this is due to a time-sensitive experiment and move their samples forward in the queue (but do NOT remove or delete the queued samples).
User Training Policy
- To schedule equipment training, it is recommended that users reach out directly to SOMF staff via email or use the Contact Us feature. Scheduling training on iLab is not encouraged due to communication delay.
- After reaching out to SOMF staff, please allow 1-2 business for a response, as the staff will need to schedule a time for an in-person training that fits their schedule as well as the equipment schedule. Most of the equipment are in high demand, so patience from the users is highly appreciated. We are doing our best to accommodate everyone’s needs.
Assisted Use Policy
- Similar to scheduling equipment training, it is recommended that users reach out directly to SOMF staff via email or use the Contact Us feature to request assisted use, which means that the SOMF staff will perform the experiments for the users.
- Any time sensitive measurements that are assisted use must be communicated to the SOMF staff 1 week ahead of time. After this time, the SOMF staff will look for availability in their schedule and the equipment schedule so that they can perform the requested measurements. The duration of the measurements will depend on the requests tests, and will be communicated to the users.
- Most of the equipment are in high demand, so patience from the users is highly appreciated. We are doing our best to accommodate everyone’s needs