VIMS scientists receive lab instrument gift from tobacco group

A gift of lab equipment to the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences will help researchers learn and improve the ailing Chesapeake Bay Watershed, according to a VIMS news release.

Altria Group, one of the largest tobacco corporations and parent company of Philip Morris, gave VIMS $100,000 worth of equipment.  New tech for lab ranges from a mass spectrometer to storage cabinets.

The new equipment will aid ongoing studies on nitrogen loading and groundwater mixing.  New studies on ecology by newly arrived professors will also use the equipment.

Image: Graduate student Alison O’Connor processes groundwater samples with a zetasizer donated by Altria. (Credit: David Malmquist/VIMS)