Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce that our NSF proposal “RAPID: PetCAT-Scan: A high-definition scanning tool for geoscientists in the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond” has been funded. As we experienced some delays in the shipment of the instrument, we haven't been able to offer this service during Fall semester. However, we are pleased to announce that the PetCAT-Scan facility is available right now (e.g., Spring Semester). This facility will help instructors teaching Mineralogy, Petrology and other classes relying on microscopes to quickly generate high-definition scan of their thin-section collection. We offer access to the facility to other faculty in the United States at “no-cost” during spring 2021 to help instructors rapidly moving on-line in response to the pandemic. The purchased instrument is a Zeiss Axio Z.1. It is a very high-resolution scanner we have the capability to scan multiple thin sections, fairly quickly. You can find more information of the instrument, as well as examples of virtual thin sections, on the following webpage: https://www.zeiss.com/microscopy/int/cmp/rwm/20/zeiss-axio-scan-digital-archive/zeissadapts-download.html Individual/department interested by the PetCAT-Scan service should use the attached order form. Please let us know if you have any questions (petcatscan@ksu.edu<mailto:petcatscan@ksu.edu>). Best regards, Brice Lacroix, Pamela Kempton and Matt Brueseke Dr. Matthew E. Brueseke Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Department of Geology, 108 Thompson Hall Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506 http://mattbrueseke.weebly.com <http://mattbrueseke.weebly.com/>