Continuing a tradition of leadership in preparing industry-ready graduates

Mines has long prided itself for producing industry-ready graduates and leaders critical to the world’s prosperity. As those industries and their needs change, so must the academic and research programs and the experiences we offer.

If you’ve been following our MINES@150 progress the past few years, you have seen this happening—perhaps more rapidly than ever before. We’ve added new undergraduate and graduate programs, offered new courses and concentrations within existing programs and expanded the ways we deliver them. The new programming is not only driven by industry needs, but it also reflects where students and working professionals want their careers to go. 

When we think about new programs and courses, we like to strategically target areas where Mines has unique expertise and partnerships to build from. The foundational characteristics of our academic programs (rigor, practical and hands-on experiences, learning-to-learn, etc.) have remained constant for nearly 150 years, but the specific knowledge and skills needed for professional success have changed. For example, in this issue you’ll read about our new bachelor’s degree in construction engineering. I’ve had one company tell me that they alone would hire every graduate from this program. 

We’ve also added bachelor’s degree programs in ceramics engineering, business engineering and management science, quantitative biosciences and engineering and design engineering. We’ve launched 20+ new master’s and doctoral degree and certificate programs, with online learning options to help support working professionals. You may have read about our first-in-the-universe space resources program and our new quantum engineering, advanced energy systems, carbon capture use and storage and advanced manufacturing programs. 

Mines alumni play a critical role in these programs through student mentorship, taking part in the design and delivery of the programs and being connectors to companies and agencies. Many Mines alumni are also students in these programs.

I’m very appreciative of our alumni and donors and their support of the expansion of our academic programs and delivery methods. We’ve accomplished a lot in a short period of time and our future is bright. If you’d like to be part of this, please reach out and we’ll get you involved. If you’d like to enroll in any of the programs, we can help you with that too.

Keep learning, and go Orediggers!

Paul C. Johnson
President and Professor 

​