Hi,
I am trained in Electrical engineering and have been responsible for a
400 MHz unit for the past 16 years.
When we acquired our high field (600 MHz) instrument a PhD chemist was
put in complete charge of it. I feel that this was a poor decision
and escalating mainenance cost for the 600 seem to support this view.
I maintain that to operate such instruments ecomomically they must run
24/7/365 with maximum up-time and maximum utilization. This requires
on-site applications support from an experienced NMR-experienced
Chemist and technical support from an nmr-experienced electrical
engineer. This combination massively reduces maintenance cost. In my
years I NEVER had a vendor person on site to perform repairs or
applications support. Sure we had occasional visits from vendor sales
staff and at those times we used their expertise.
I insist that if the engineering person is to maintain the instruments
then that person should be the Primary Administrator of the
instruments so that s/he may maintain intimacy with the soft/hardware.
Naturally close cooperation with the Applications Person will
influence such administration.
What does the community think about this?
Sincerely,
Andy Soper
Rhodes University
Grahamstown
South Africa.
Received on Wed Jan 14 2009 - 19:35:19 MST