Here are some top news stories about Mines. You can read many of these in more detail at�newsroom.mines.edu.

Recognition
Chemical and Biological Engineering Professor John Dorgan received an award last fall as part of the National Science Foundation’s Sustainable Chemistry, Engineering and Materials (SusChEM) initiative, which is investing $49 million to support the discovery of new science and engineering that will provide a supply of safe, stable and sustainable chemicals and materials to meet future global demand.

An NSF RAPID proposal was awarded last fall to Colorado School of Mines researchers to investigate the potential impacts on water quality in the Rim Fire area near Yosemite National Park. The research, led by Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Terri S. Hogue along with her colleagues John McCray(professor and head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering), Richard Luthy, Alexis Stichler, Chris Higgins (assistant professor in C&EE) and Alicia M. Kinoshita, will involve monitoring reservoir and regional stream system water quality as well as alterations in snow patterns and associated spring runoff.

Moises Carreon, an associate professor at Mines who holds the Coors Developmental Chair in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, and Gavin Hayes, an adjunct professor in the Department of Geophysics and a U.S. Geological Survey research seismologist, received a National Science Foundation Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Corinne Packard, assistant professor in the George S. Ansell Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, has received two awards this year: a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for her research, ‘Controlling Pressure-Induced Transformation in Rare Earth Orthophosphates,’ and the Young Leader Professional Development Award from The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society’s Structural Materials Division. The second award was created to enhance the professional development of young people from TMS’s five technical divisions by providing networking opportunities.

Chemical and Biological Engineering Department Assistant Professor Keith Neeves also received a CAREER Award for research that examines blood clot formation. The study will also create K-12 outreach programs and undergraduate research opportunities focused on the connection between engineering and biology. The NSF CAREER award is the most prestigious award in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.

The Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc. (SME) selected Graham Davis, a professor in the Division of Economics and Business, as the 2014 recipient of the SME/AIME Mineral Economics Award for his research and teaching of modern methods of valuing and evaluating undeveloped mineral resources, and the role of minerals in economic development.

Mines’�Chapter of the Society of Physics Students was selected as an ‘Outstanding SPS Chapter’ for the 2012-2013 academic year. Less than 10 percent of SPS chapters receive this honor.

Carl Mitcham, a professor in the Division of Liberal Arts and International Studies, has been invited by the Chinese Academy of Engineering to serve as a keynote speaker on the philosophy of engineering at the CAE 20th anniversary celebration in Beijing this June. The theme of this CAE International Conference on Engineering Science and Technology is ‘Engineering and the Future of Humankind.’ Two weeks later, Mitcham (as a result of nomination by Mines Emerita Associate Professor Cathy Skokan) will be a distinguished speaker at the American Society for Engineering Education conference in Indianapolis on the topic, ‘Learning from China.’

A multi-university research team led by principal investigator Paul Constantine, the Ben L. Fryrear Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, has been funded to the tune of $1.05 million over three years by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program to improve the capabilities of data-intensive physical simulations such as climate modeling, groundwater flow and renewable energy applications. Constantine’s team will apply the methods they develop to real inverse problems in chemical kinetics and turbulent flame modeling.

Matt Liberatore (associate professor in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department), John McCray (head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) and McCray’s former graduate student Jeffrey Silva PhD ’11 have been awarded the 2014 Rudolf Hering Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers, Environmental and Water Resources Institute, for their paper, ‘Characterization of bulk fluid and transport properties for simulating polymer-improved aquifer remediation,’ published in the Journal of Environmental Engineering in February 2013.

Priscilla Nelson, head of the Department of Mining Engineering, was selected as one of the WomenBuilders Council’s Outstanding Women for 2014 for her accomplishments in the building industry and for serving as an important role model for women.

Brian Gorman, associate professor in the George S. Ansell Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, has been selected to receive the Microanalysis Society’s K.F.J. Heinrich Award, presented annually to an outstanding young scientist not yet 40 years old in the year of the award for distinguished contributions to the field of microanalysis. Gorman was selected because of his work on the interface between atom probe tomography and electron microscopy and microanalysis, in addition to contributions to the understanding of materials structure, chemistry and properties.

Linda Figueroa, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, received the 2013 Environmental Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration.

The Mines section of the Society of Women Engineers was awarded the ‘FY 2014 Highest Membership Retention (Collegiate)’ award.

Mines received the Xcel Energy Standard Offer Achievement Award for saving 1,845,237 kWh in 2013.

Students
Geology and geological engineering graduate student Elena Finley is one of 1,058 applicants in the running for the Mars One project. The project aims to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. Crews of four will depart every two years, starting in 2024. You can view Finley’s Mars One profile and watch her video application here.

Computer science students Daniel Mawhirter, Han Tran and Espen Roth, comprising the team, ‘Over Developed,’ placed second to Georgia Institute of Technology in the WindWard Code Wars competition February 1. Teams from top universities competed in the eight-hour contest that involved programming taxi drivers to travel around a map and pick up and drop off CEOs from large companies in fictional cities.

In the 26.2-mile Bataan Memorial Death March held March 23 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., eight cadets from Mines received high placements: individual marathon, Colton Becker, 3rd out of 3,354; ROTC female heavy division, Rebecca Horn and Kristen Smith, 6th and 7th out of 17; and civilian male heavy team, Scott Baker, Luke Brown, Blake Cross, Zachary Doom and Julian Uy, 1st out of 11 teams. The march honors heroic service members who defended the Philippine Islands during World War II.

Appointments
Professor Paul Santi has been appointed head of the Department of Geology and Geological Engineering. He had been serving as interim department head since June 2013.

Jeff Squier BS ’84, MS ’86 is the new head of the Department of Physics, replacing Tom Furtak, who has announced his intention to retire. Squier was also awarded the 2014 SPIE Harold E. Edgerton Award, presented annually by the International Society for Optics and Photonics.

Professor Stephen Liu PhD ’84 is the newly appointed Interim ABS Endowed Chair in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, which was established earlier this year by the American Bureau of Shipping. Liu was also named the Distinguished Chair for Oil and Gas to Brazil by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Applied Mathematics & Statistics Professor Paul Martin has been appointed as the editor-in-chief of the SIAM Journal of Applied Mathematics, the oldest and one of the most prestigious journals of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The appointment will start on July 1, 2014 and is for an initial period of 2.5 years.

Tissa Illangasekare, AMAX Distinguished Chair of Environmental Sciences and Engineering and professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been appointed to the Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board.

Research
Mines will serve as one of four core facilities in the newly formed American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute that focuses on lightweight and modern metals manufacturing. ALMMII will be headquartered in Michigan and led by Ohio-based EWI, the University of Michigan and The Ohio State University. It will expand the market for and create new consumers of products and systems to use new, lightweight, high-performing metals and alloys titanium, aluminum and high-strength steels, by removing technological barriers in manufacturing. The new institute will consist of a pilot-plant facility with capabilities for manufacturing process development and prototype characterization, as well as research and development laboratories at partner locations including Mines. The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade will provide $1 million per year for the next five years towards Mines’ research program, which will be matched at least one to one by the federal government.

Mines in the News
The Wire reported that Mines ranked as the No. 1 public university for return on investment in PayScale’s 2014 College ROI Report.

Mines ranked seventh in Business Insider’s ’20 Public Colleges with the Smartest Students.