Only the second woman in the country to earn a doctorate in petroleum engineering, Ramona Graves PhD ’82 found her passion—but it wasn’t what she thought it would be. In 1977, when she entered Mines, less than 2 percent of engineers in the United States were women, and Graves was one of only a handful of female students on campus. No woman in the U.S. had ever earned a PhD in petroleum engineering, and those trying to break into the field faced an uphill battle.

When Jennifer Miskimins MS ’00, PhD ’02 received her bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering in 1990, the United States oil industry was still reeling from the ’80s price collapse, most major companies had shifted their exploration efforts overseas, and those remaining on shore were slowing production and focusing on the lowest-hanging fruit. Talk of an imminent “peak oil” crisis was escalating. And for bright, forward-thinking engineers, job prospects were bleak. A quarter-century later, the U.S. energy landscape couldn’t look more different.

Two summers ago on I-70, about a mile from the highest point on the nation’s Interstate Highway System, a dip in the pavement grew so large that cars were going airborne and getting tossed out of their lanes. Fortunately, no one crashed before the Colorado Department of Transportation made repairs, but drivers shouldn’t rest too easy; the Big Bump will be back. CDOT turned to Professor Ning Lu, an international expert on landslides, in 2009, and he’s partnered with the state’s engineers to gather baseline data about slope stability, with an eye toward developing a plan for a permanent fix.