Ashley Spurgeon

Maniacs for Mining Education

Ryan Miles ’07, MS ’14 was frustrated. As a mining engineer who frequently traveled for work, he consistently found himself talking to people who confused mining engineering with data mining. Additionally, many people didn’t understand that mining is still a viable, thriving industry, critical to today’s world. Ryan knew he had to do something to better educate people about his field. He and his wife, Jules, began brainstorming ways to inform people about the importance of the mining industry—thinking about creating a blog, starting a YouTube channel or even the more traditional route of submitting articles to academic journals....

Giving Back to Make STEM More Accessible

Posted by Ashley Spurgeon

Rubecca Martinez Dalton ’06 was first introduced to Colorado School of Mines when she visited the Geology Museum in the third grade, but it wasn’t until she entered high school that she was introduced to the possibility of a career in engineering. For three summers, Dalton participated in Metropolitan State University’s Denver Prep Program, where high school students could take math classes that were designed like college courses. She said the professors she learned from described math as a subject that anyone is capable of studying and creates an even playing field for all students. “Before that,” Dalton said,...

Leaking secrets: Measuring gas seepage to determine the possibility of life on Mars

Posted by Ashley Spurgeon |

Humanity’s fascination with Mars—and the possibility of life on the red planet—has grown in recent years, and countless hours of study have gone into determining whether or not Mars would be able to provide sustainable life. Most of this research is based on what we already know about life on Earth and what makes it possible for organisms to not only survive but thrive. Mines emeritus professor, Ron Klusman, has spent the past 30 years researching low levels of gas seepage from Earth into the atmosphere and the environmental changes caused by the release of those gases. While at...

Dreaming Big to Prevent Disaster

Posted by Ashley Spurgeon

As the Persian Gulf War drew to a close in February 1991, Kuwait experienced one of the country’s worst environmental and economic disasters as Iraqi forces set fire to more than 600 Kuwaiti oil wells, which burned for more than eight months. Crude oil spewed across the desert and into the Persian Gulf, a mark of the devastating environmental consequences of war. The drama and tragedy of such an event certainly leaves an impression, especially on a ten-year-old. Shayma Amin ’00 was living outside of Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War, but when she was finally allowed to return...

A Passion for Stormwater Research

Posted by Ashley Spurgeon |

Chelsea Panos began her journey at Mines as an undergraduate student in the physics department before discovering her true passion: environmental engineering, and more specifically—hydrology.

Author: Ashley Spurgeon

Maniacs for Mining Education

Giving Back to Make STEM More Accessible

Leaking secrets: Measuring gas seepage to determine the possibility of life on Mars

Dreaming Big to Prevent Disaster

A Passion for Stormwater Research

Current Issue: Summer 2017

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