On Oct. 16, 2018, donors to the Department of Chemistry Instrumentation Facility (DCIF) revitalization campaign celebrated the campaign’s success with chemistry faculty and staff.

Located in the sub-basement of Building 18 in the heart of the MIT campus, the DCIF supports and maintains a core instrumentation facility with analytical instruments. During the evening, Walt Massefski, DCIF director, and his team members, gave tours of the updated facility.

Analytical instruments typically have finite useful lifetimes of approximately five to 10 years. With the average age of the instrumentation at 17 years and an alarming increase in its failure rate, the need to revitalize the facility became critical. Researchers, having prepared precious samples requiring immediate analysis, were all too often finding that the instruments they needed for analyses were down because aged components had failed.

In their welcome remarks, Department Head Timothy Jamison and Dean of Science Michael Sipser, expressed their deep appreciation to the chief supporters present, and to those who were unable to travel to the event.

Jamison also acknowledged the many other donors who had supported the initiative, and expressed his appreciation to members of faculty and staff present who had been instrumental to the campaign’s success.