Lisa Marshall

Priming the Peace Corps Pipeline: With a new college prep program and growing emphasis on humanitarian engineering, Mines is turning out a new generation of volunteers

David Frossard was an idealistic, small-town newspaper reporter with a psychology degree when, in pursuit of a new adventure, he applied to join the Peace Corps in 1985. “If you had a college degree and some basic science knowledge, you were considered trainable,” recalls Frossard, who now works as a web administrator for Mines Computing, Communications and Information Technologies and teaches a humanitarian engineering course. “I said, ‘Send me anywhere. I’ll do anything you think I can do.’ It was the luck of the draw.” He landed in a mountainous region of the Philippines, tasked with helping villagers establish...

A Radiochemistry Renaissance: A new nuclear science and engineering chair, lab and research focus is putting Mines on the map

Posted by Lisa Marshall

You could call them the neglected stepchildren of the periodic table. Stretching across the bottom of the table, the 15 actinides are among the heaviest elements, are all radioactive and are generally not found in nature. The most famous among them, uranium and plutonium, have been integral in shaping the global political and energy landscape, used in nuclear weapons production until the late 1960s and nuclear plants since the mid-1950s. To this day, roughly 20 percent of the United States’ energy comes from nuclear power. But in the wake of the Cold War’s end and the nuclear accidents at...

Calculating Risk: Mines engineers are making a name for themselves in the growing world of extreme sports

Posted by Lisa Marshall

For Mickey Wilson ’11, MS ’12, it’s just another day at the office. Sporting baggy jeans, a black ball cap and an intensely focused look, the physics and metallurgical engineering graduate steps onto a 2-inch wide strap of webbing suspended a dizzying 460 feet above the blinking Las Vegas Strip. Guests at the nearby Mandalay Bay casino look up nervously as he moves toward the center, riding the line surfer-style and wildly rocking it back and forth. He briefly hops on one foot, then gracefully (and purposely) slips off, tumbling ground-ward. The audience gasps. His safety rope catches him. He climbs back up, grin spreading across his face. And he...

Mines Soldiers On: 100 years after the establishment of ROTC, Mines’ program remains a national stand-out

Posted by Lisa Marshall

Sixteen miles into the 2016 Bataan Memorial Death March, Army ROTC Cadet Parker Bolstad felt his quads seize up, and he collapsed to his knees. He was clad in a full military uniform and boots, a 40-pound pack on his back. The blazing sun beat down on him, and the hot desert sand of New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range made the 80-degree day feel like 100. He was dehydrated and exhausted. But when a four-wheeler loaded with National Guardsmen drove up to pull him off the course, Bolstad instead filled his water bottle and kept running. Ten miles later, he crossed the finish line at a time of 8:22:09, flanked by a crowd of...

We Are Mines: As Graduate Needs Evolve, Mines’ Alumni Association is Reinventing Itself

Posted by Lisa Marshall

As Ray Priestley ’79 left the Green Center auditorium on graduation day back in 1979, he clutched his shiny silver diploma tightly and had a thought shared by many of his fellow graduates that day: Get out fast, and don’t look back. “The thought at the time was, ‘You don’t want to stick around too long, or they might take your degree back,’” jokes Priestley, recalling a grueling academic schedule, little time for extracurricular activities, and an intimidating faculty and administration. Just a few days after graduation, he left for a job in Oklahoma, didn’t step foot on campus for years, and didn’t find his way to the Mines...

Author: Lisa Marshall

Priming the Peace Corps Pipeline: With a new college prep program and growing emphasis on humanitarian engineering, Mines is turning out a new generation of volunteers

A Radiochemistry Renaissance: A new nuclear science and engineering chair, lab and research focus is putting Mines on the map

Calculating Risk: Mines engineers are making a name for themselves in the growing world of extreme sports

Mines Soldiers On: 100 years after the establishment of ROTC, Mines’ program remains a national stand-out

We Are Mines: As Graduate Needs Evolve, Mines’ Alumni Association is Reinventing Itself

Current Issue: Summer 2018

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