Its responsibilities include scholarships, curriculum development, grant procurement, and production of new shows and workshops. It also functions as an archival depository for old and new shows and a distribution center for audio educational material for middle schools and high schools. A variety of light and electron microscopes as well as complete darkroom and image processing facilities are available for use. The center assists researchers from nearly every science-related discipline at UGA and is recognized as a regional asset to scientists throughout the southeastern United States. The center reports to the Dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and also serves the private sector.
Emphasis is placed on the use of nuclear analytical tools and methodologies in applied research.
The CAIS plays a strong support role on the UGA campus by assisting academic departments, research units, and individuals with problems related to instrumentation, methods, and techniques in isotopic analysis. The CAIS also provides analytical services to the scientific and industrial communities nationally and internationally. The center coordinates the research of University scholars in fields relating to archaeology and art history, facilitates collaboration with experts outside the University, serves as a resource center of laboratory equipment and technical support for archaeologists, art historians, and museums worldwide, and coordinates interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the archaeological sciences. The programs focus on language and area studies, but also involve students and faculty from law, business, agriculture, education, journalism, veterinary medicine, and the arts and sciences. Center faculty members represent Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Marine Programs, and Microbiology at the University of Georgia School of Forestry and the USDA Richard B. Russell Research Center.