Visitor Categories

The Institute for Rock Magnetism is dedicated to providing state-of-the-art facilities and technical expertise to any interested researcher who applies and is accepted in one of five categories: Visiting Researchers (10-day), U.S. Student Visiting Researchers (5-day), U-Channel Visiting Researchers (7-day), Magnetic Microscopy Visiting Researchers (10-day), or Remote Access Measurement Researchers. It is also possible to arrange shorter, informal visits. See application information for each category.

Visiting Researchers

These visits provide access to the full set of IRM instruments for up to 10 days. Topics for research are open to any field of study involving fine particle magnetism, but preference will be given to projects relating magnetism to geological or environmental studies, or to fundamental physical studies relevant to the magnetism of Earth materials. In general, projects that require only widely-available equipment (such as paleomagnetic or low-field susceptibility instruments) will be given lower priority than those that require a variety of more specialized rock-magnetic instruments (e.g., low-temperature, high-field susceptometers, domain imaging, Mossbauer spectroscopy).

Costs up to $750 can be reimbursed towards travel. No funds are available for per diem expenses.

U.S. Student Visiting Researchers

This program aims to provide financial and instrumental support for advanced undergraduates and MS students who seek to acquire state-of-the-art rock magnetic and/or paleomagnetic data for an individual research project.  Special consideration will be given to students requiring data for the completion of a senior thesis or preliminary data for a proposal to support continued graduate research. More advanced students may wish to apply for a 10-day Research Visit.

U.S. Students can be reimbursed up to $500 for travel costs. Instrument usage fees are waived.

Visiting Students may spend up to five days at the IRM and will work with IRM staff to:

  • Design an experiment or set of experiments that will further your research interests.
  • Learn how to operate IRM instrumentation
  • Process and interpret the generated data
  • Identify specific, attainable research goals that can be achieved with future magnetic measurements.   


An individualized learning component is an integral part of the Visiting Student Program. The format will be flexible and may involve a mini-seminar or group discussion activity with IRM staff and faculty. This will take place shortly after arriving at the IRM and will be focused on a particular aspect of magnetism most suitable to the student's project and educational background. 

This program is meant to help cultivate young researchers with an interest in paleomagnetism and rock magnetism.  We anticipate and encourage visiting students to apply for fully fledged research visits after their visiting student program is completed.  

Eligibility: 
Applicants must be enrolled as full-time students at an accredited U.S. university or college. We strongly urge, but do not require, the student's home institution to commit to providing an equal, matching grant to the student.  

U-Channel Visiting Researchers

For visitors whose purpose is primarily to use the u-channel (long-core) magnetometer system.

The IRM's u-channel magnetometer system is available for use to outside visitors through a short application process. To help you plan your visit, please keep in mind the following:

  • Access diameter is 4.2 cm, which will accommodate a standard u-channel core section up to 1.5 m long, as well as discrete samples.
  • Resolvable measurement sensitivity of the instrument is roughly 2-4 x 10-11 Am2. (SQUID noise is ~2-4 x 10-12 Am2 at high frequencies).
  • In-line treatments:
    • Alternating field (AF) demagnetization along three axes up to 170 mT (200 mT in the axial direction).
    • Axial acquisition of ARM up to 0.4 mT
  • Off-line treatments:
    • Axial acquisition of IRM up to 1.0 T
  • Accepted u-channel visitors are also encouraged to select a small number of pilot samples for more detailed rock magnetic analyses on other IRM equipment. These data may be used to explore the feasibility of returning to the IRM as a Visiting Researcher with a targeted rock magnetic study.


Instrument fee waivers may be granted if the user can demonstrate that the fee would constitute a financial hardship. Proposals will not be evaluated on the basis of ability to pay.

Magnetic Microscopy Visiting Researchers 

Observations of micromagnetic structures in individual grains or measuring magnetic moments at high spatial resolutions are useful for understanding the origin of natural magnetic memory and its stability over geologic timescales. With the installation of an Asylum Magnetic Force Microscope (MFM) and Quantum Diamond Microscope (QDM) we can  offer magnetic mircroscopy visits. MFM offers spatial resolutions of a few tens of nanometers for (sub)domain imaging over a field of view of ~100 microns. The QDM is a magnetic mapping method and its resolution is not spatial, but in its sensitvity to the fields induced during the measurements. It offers a field of view of 2 mm per image, with limited resolution optical imaging, but with the sensitivity to capture magnetic field data from magnetic particles to the single domain level. 

These visits offers specific access to, and expertise on, using one or other of these instruments. Owing to the time consuming nature of the measurements, magnetic microscopy on a limited number of samples is the sole focus. Access to other instrumentation at the IRM is limited as part of this fellowship. Visits are up to 10 days.

Applicants should contact us before applying to discuss project details, feasibility and sample preparation.

Remote Access Measurement Researchers

To give the magnetic community greater access to IRM instrumentation, this program allows researchers to submit proposals designed around IRM staff conducting a limited amount of measurements on their behalf. The aim of this program is to provide support to researchers with limited resources, limited (or no funding) or an inability to travel. Preference will be given to graduate students coming towards the conclusion of their studies and early career post-docs.

As part of the application, a rationale for how the Remote Access program would benefit the applicant's research and help promote their careers should be submitted.

Guest Researchers 

Many researchers may not have need for an extended stay at the IRM. If you require access to only two or three instruments, for periods up to 3 days, please contact us about scheduling an informal visit. 

These visits are accommodated throughout the year as scheduling permits. Please contact Facility Manager Maxwell Brown ([email protected]) for more information and to arrange a visit. It is best to send a short (1 paragraph) description of what you propose to do along with dates you would be interested in visiting.

Extended Visitors

Depending on availability, the IRM accepts researchers for extended periods of time (e.g. 6 months/ 1 year). These visits must be coordinated with IRM faculty who agree to host the applicant. Please contact Facility Manager Maxwell Brown ([email protected]) for more information, or IRM faculty directly if an overlap of research interests exists. It is best to send a detailed description of the proposed study and an estimated timeline.

Application Deadlines

Applications for Visiting Researchers, U.S. Student Visiting Researchers and U-Channel Research Visits are accepted April 30 and October 30. These deadlines are for visits to be scheduled the following July-December and January-June, respectively.

We recognize that some lake- and ocean-core projects are time sensitive because of the potential for rapid, post-coring, sediment diagenesis. Therefore, time-sensitive applications will be entertained year round and allowed as scheduling permits.

Guest Researchers may contact us at any time to discuss a mutually agreeable visit date.

Suggested Acknowledgement

In order to help us track publications that result from research performed at the IRM we kindly ask that the nature of the visit to the IRM is acknowledged in any resulting publication. You may include a statement similar to or edit this suggested acknowledgement statement as appropriate:

"Part of this work was performed [insert if and as appropriate: as a Visiting Researcher/US Student Visiting Researcher / U-Channel Visiting Researcher / Magnetic Microscopy Visiting Researcher / Remote Access Measurement Researcher] at the Institute for Rock Magnetism (IRM), University of Minnesota. The IRM is a US National Multi-user Facility supported through the Instrumentation and Facilities program of the National Science Foundation, Earth Sciences Division, and by funding from the University of Minnesota."