NSRL works in collaboration with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurement facilities to provide state-of-the-art radiocarbon preparation and measurement services to the local University and Federal research communities. The lab also pursues in-house research on applications of 14C dating to climate change studies, calibration of the 14C timescale, and the use of 14C as a geochemical and geophysical tracer in the Earth system.
Scott Lehman
Director
Chad Wolak
Lab Manager
Patrick Cappa
Research staff
Steve Morgan
Research staff
Contact & Services
Lab phone: 303 492-0362
Please contact Chad Wolak, Laboratory Manager, 303 492-5019 regarding routine sample submissions.
Chad Wolak packs radiocarbon samples. Photo by Ethan Welty.
Collaboration
NSRL maintains an active collaboration with the NOAA’s Boulder-based Global Monitoring Division (GMD) aimed at development and use of ultra-precise 14C measurement in CO2 as a quantitative tracer for recently-added, fossil fuel derived CO2 in the atmosphere.
Media stories
- Climatologist Pieter Tans joins INSTAAR (2022)
- Lawns and landscaping complicate taking the measure of Los Angeles Basin’s carbon footprint (2020)
- Tracking fossil fuel emissions with carbon-14 (2020)
- One fifth of Los Angeles’s CO2 rises from lawns and golf courses (2018)
- Ozone treaty taking a bite out of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (2017)
Overview video (2.5 min)
For an overview of the lab, watch the first 2.5 minutes of this video. This overview is part of a tour of two INSTAAR labs. The second part of the video gives an overview of the Stable Isotope Lab.
Publications
Publications by Lehman are included below.