Mines is the top-ranked university in Colorado in the 2012 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s listing of America’s Best Colleges and Universities, ranking 75th in the category of Best National Universities, both public and private, and 52nd in the publication’s listing for Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs at schools with doctoral programs.
Mining industry representatives from around the world traveled to Mines in August for a three- day course on rare earths, entitled, ‘Introduction to Rare Earth Geology, Mineralogy, Mining, Mineral Processing, Extractive Metallurgy and Economics.’�This presentation of current technology in the field was a first of its kind in the United States, and included lectures from Mines faculty and executives from Molycorp Minerals and Rare Element Resources.
Assistant Research Professor Eric Toberer has been selected as the recipient of the 2011 Young Investigator International Thermoelectric Society Award. The award will be presented to him at the ICT2011 banquet in Traverse City, Mich., where he has been invited to speak. Toberer’s outstanding contributions have been documented in a number of journal publications on synthesis and transport properties of advanced thermoelectric materials with complex crystals structures.
The Mining Engineering Design Team (called Golden Aggregates) took first place at the Stu- dent Design Competition, which is jointly sponsored by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration and the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association. Golden Aggregates, made up of Koehler Anderson, Greg Begalle, Michelle
Harman, Douglas Low, Ben Reisinger and Logan Ronhovde, competed against 17 teams from around the United States.
Former Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Kirsten Volpi left Mines in August to serve as chief administrative officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs. Replacing her beginning October 31 was Joseph Trubacz, who was previously vice president for finance and administration at the University of Alaska.
Mines’�Physics Department ranked fifth nationally in the number of degrees granted during the 2009-2010 academic year, according to a recent report by the American Institute of Physics covering data for 724 degree-granting physics departments.