Expanded Recruiting Boosts Applications
More students applied to Mines last year than in any previous year, suggesting that recent efforts to increase the number and diversity of applicants are paying off. (more...)  





New Web Site Launched
Mines launched an entirely redesigned web site in October, incorporating a bold new look, simpler navigation and improved search capabilities. (more...)





Portraits of Mines Founder Returned to Campus
Descendants of Colorado School of Mines founder Bishop George Maxwell Randall
came to campus in September to handdeliver two fragile family heirlooms to Arthur Lakes Library’s Russell L. and Lyn Wood Mining History Archive. (more...)



Mines Unveils New Oil Shale Center
In October, Mines announced the creation of the Center for Oil Shale Technology and Research, to be sponsored jointly by Total Exploration and Production, Shell Exploration and Production, and ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company. (more...)




Physics Department Promotes Nuclear Engineering Program
The Nuclear Engineering Program is finding ways to cultivate interest among students, now that it is ready to ramp up its enrollment. (more...)





Partnership with Kazakh National Technical University
Colorado School of Mines recently entered into an agreement with Kazakh National Technical University located in Almaty, Kazakhstan. (more...)





In Brief...
Announcements and additional news items. (more...)

Expanded Recruiting Boosts Applications

More students applied to Mines last year than in any previous year, suggesting that recent efforts to increase the number and diversity of applicants are paying off.

“We’ve seen a steady increase in the number of applicants over the past couple of years,” says Bruce Goetz, director of admissions, who reports that last year 7,200 applications were filed, 4,200 were accepted and 905 new students were enrolled for the fall 2008 semester.

“The larger the applicant pool,” Goetz says, “the more selective we can be.” The average high school gradepoint average of this year’s freshman class was 3.75. The goal of the Admissions Office goes beyond identifying and selecting the most academically qualified students; it also seeks a balanced student body. This means picking a group of aspiring engineers strong in math and science, who have a broad set of interests, whether they’re athletes, musicians, volunteers or writers. It also means the Admissions Office must do its best to balance the mostly male, mostly Coloradoan student body by targeting recruitment efforts toward women and non-resident students. Two campus organizations that admissions works with closely to recruit more women are the Society of Women Engineers and Women in Science, Engineering and Math. Reflecting positively on their efforts, the fall 2008 freshman class has the highest percentage of women yet—almost 30 percent—and one quarter of the class is from outside Colorado. The percentage of students of color has held steady at a comparatively high 14 percent.

Celine Graas, a freshman from Jericho, VT, is just the high-achieving student with external interests that Mines seeks to attract. “When I found there was no equestrian program at Mines,” Graas says, “I took it upon myself to start a horse club.” Graas, who initially learned about Mines from her mother, Carole Graas ’89, is also a member of the Society of Women Engineers.

To capture the attention of non-resident students, admissions must work hard. “In Colorado, Mines is synonymous with quality. Part of our job is to market the school’s reputation outside the state,” says Goetz. Last year admissions sent recruiters to Alaska, Oklahoma and Texas; Illinois has been added to the itinerary this year.The admissions team also mails information to more than 100,000 students across the country, based on their test scores and interest in technical fields. Non-resident students, Goetz says, are especially attracted by the school’s relatively small size, its location and the opportunities Colorado provides for outdoor recreation.

Most prospective students visit campus at least once before deciding to accept a place at Mines, and the impressions they take away are often the deciding factor. Liz Hunter, a freshman from Farmington, NM, visited the school last year, and she says it sealed the deal. “After I visited Mines, I just fell in love with the school. I didn’t even consider any other schools, even the ones to which I’d already applied.” Admissions coordinates about 1,600 such student visits each year and Goetz tries to meet personally with most of the students before they tour the school.

The office is clearly doing something right: 2009-10 is shaping up to be another record year for applicants. As of November 2008, the Admissions Office had received about 5,000 applications for fall—more than had been received by the same point in 2007. For now, Goetz says, the size of incoming freshman classes must remain at roughly 900 new students per year due to capacity constraints. If this changes and the school decides to increase enrollment, the size of the applicant pool will have to grow as well. Luckily, says Goetz, “The trend has always been up. There’s no indication that interest in Mines is going down.”

Web note: Alumni from around the country support Mines admissions operations in a variety of ways. To find out how you can play a role, click here.


New Web Site Launched

Mines launched an entirely redesigned web site in October, incorporating a bold new look, simpler navigation and improved search capabilities. The new site is a complete makeover of the school’s online presence. “Our goal was to develop a compelling site that would effectively tell our story to external audiences,” said Marsha Williams, director of integrated marketing communications. “Navigation had to be easy, and for the site to be useful and timely, it also had to be manageable. I believe we succeeded,” she added.

Prior to the launch of the new site, Mines’ web presence had developed organically. Most departments, programs and offices designed their own sites and posted information independently, maintaining links to a handful of central pages. With time it became increasingly evident that a coordinated approach was required, and growth was making the task increasingly large and complex. It was in early 2007 that Williams was given a mandate and a budget to spearhead the initiative.

Now, with the external site complete, another task remains: “The last part of this project entails creating a new look for the internal site catering to the Mines community,” said Gina Boice, who joined Mines in 2007 as assistant director of web development. From a revised location, the old Mines site continues to serve the Mines campus community, but hopefully not for long. “The new site is going to involve some standard templates and a content management system,” Boice said, adding that it should become available in early 2009.

By allowing faculty and staff from departments and offices across campus to independently manage their respective sites within a uniform framework, the content management system should make site maintenance relatively easy. And with uniform templates, it should also be simple for the community to navigate. “Once again, we want to streamline, making these pages effective communication tools for the community,” said Williams.


Portraits of Mines Founder Return to Campus

Descendants of Colorado School of Mines founder Bishop George Maxwell Randall came to campus in September to handdeliver two fragile family heirlooms to Arthur Lakes Library’s Russell L. and Lyn Wood Mining History Archive. The bishop’s great-great granddaughters, Marion Norman and Sandra Coleman (first cousins), gave the school a family photograph taken in the late 19th century, which includes three generations of Randalls, as well as the original charcoal sketch of a widely reproduced portrait of the bishop.

Marion and Sandra, along with their husbands, Dave and Michael, were welcomed to campus by Joanne V. Lerud-Heck, director of the library. Following a tour of Arthur Lakes Library and the Wood Mining History Archive, they met with President Scoggins and spoke of their family’s deep affection for Colorado School of Mines.

Mines Unveils New Oil Shale Center

In October, Mines announced the creation of the Center for Oil Shale Technology and Research, to be sponsored jointly by Total Exploration and Production, Shell Exploration and Production, and ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company. There are roughly 3 trillion barrels of recoverable oil lying dormant within the world’s known oil shale deposits, estimates Jerry Boak, director of COSTAR, who points out that the quantity of oil that has been extracted globally since it was first discovered in Pennsylvania in 1859 is about one-third that amount.

“It’s a huge, huge resource,” he says. With broad expertise in energy and fossil fuels, and proximity to the largest-known deposit of oil shale, Mines has become the world’s leading oil shale research institution. “We are the natural location for such a center,” says Boak, who believes there is a renaissance in evaluation of the resource, and new technology which might lead to new estimates of how much is available.

The three COSTAR sponsors are among the largest companies looking into large-scale development of oil shale. By gaining a better understanding of how oil shale was formed and what might happen underground as it is produced, the potential of the resource will become clearer. Boak anticipates that COSTAR’s findings will attract new partners to the group, which in turn will propel broader research.

“We believe we can provide independent research results to help develop this resource efficiently and in an environmentally responsible manner,” says Boak. He also believes their work, and the training opportunities they will provide, could prove valuable for the development of other unconventional hydrocarbon resources such as heavy oil and oil sands.

At present, the plans are for COSTAR to tackle three areas of research. The first is to develop a better understanding of what happens to oil shale when it is heated—a critical step in extracting natural gas or liquid hydrocarbons from the rock. The second is to shed light on the depositional history of oil shale in ancient, fresh and salty lakes, and how that history controls the hydrocarbon distribution. And lastly, COSTAR will seek to develop practical tools for determining the geochemistry and energy content of oil shale, devising a set of standard measures for describing available reserves.

While some findings will remain proprietary, COSTAR will compile a database of oil shale information and make it available globally via the internet. In part, this work will draw on the extensive Tell Ertl collection of oil shale research material in Mines’ Arthur Lakes Library.


Physics Department Promotes Nuclear Engineering Program

The Nuclear Engineering Program is finding ways to cultivate interest among students, now that it is ready to ramp up its enrollment. As part of this initiative, the Physics Department invited author and former anti-nuclear activist Gwyneth Cravens to deliver a lecture on campus in October entitled, “Why Going Green Means Going Nuclear.” Held in the Green Center, the lecture was part of the Physics Colloquium series and was attended by students, faculty and alumni.

This particular event focused on raising awareness of the environmental issues and communicating the potential of nuclear power. Cravens is not a physicist, however, her non-technical approach to the subject was effective: “Any undergraduate student could come in and understand her arguments,” said Jim McNeil, professor of physics and chair of the Physics Colloquium committee, adding, “The talk was well attended and there was a lot of interest. Students kept her there for another half hour after the talk was over.”

A respected author and regular contributor to The New York Times, Harper’s and The New Yorker, Cravens has five novels to her name. Her latest book, Power To Save The World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy, is her first serious foray into the realm of science. Cravens explained that she decided to write the book after physicist Richard “Rip” Anderson convinced her—after numerous visits to uranium mines, experimental reactors, power plants and nuclear waste sites—of the safety of nuclear power.

“When I began my research eight years ago, I’d assumed that we had many choices in the way we made electricity. But we don’t. Nuclear power is the only large-scale, environmentally benign, time-tested technology currently available to provide clean electricity,” writes Cravens. In addition to the minimal carbon emissions of nuclear power, her lecture pointed to the industry’s long safety record, the small quantity of waste compared to coal, and the fact that traditional coal power plants disperse much larger quantities of radiation into the environment.

Partnership with Kazakh National Technical University

Colorado School of Mines recently entered into an agreement with Kazakh National Technical University located in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Internationally respected for its expertise in geology, mining, metallurgy, and oil and gas, the university is an interesting match for Mines.

Located at the base of a high mountain range, Kazakh National Technical University was primarily founded to support the nation’s natural resource industries. The ninth largest country in the world, Kazakhstan’s mineral wealth is considerable, with large natural deposits of petroleum, natural gas, uranium, lead, zinc, copper, coal, iron and gold, to name a few.

The agreement, facilitated through Chevron Corporation’s University Partnership Program, outlines avenues for cooperation and a standard exchange agreement between the two universities for students and faculty. The agreement was signed by Mines President M.W. “Bill” Scoggins and Kazakhstan National Technical University Rector Adilov Zheksenbek Makeyevich.

“In today’s interconnected world, Mines is pleased to develop exchange agreements with top-tier international universities such as Kazakhstan National Technical University,” Scoggins said. “Both universities benefit from the exchange of faculty and students, as well as fostering collaborative research. We appreciate Chevron’s University Partnership Program that makes such a relationship possible and meaningful,” he added.


In Brief...

Brajendra Mishra, professor of metallurgical and materials engineering, was awarded the highest award of Honorary Membership by the Indian Institute of Metals in November. The award recognizes distinguished contributions in education, research and professional services in metallurgical engineering.

The Mines chapter of the Society of Women Engineers was presented with the 2008 Outstanding Collegiate Section Award at the national conference held in Baltimore in November.

Carl Mitcham, professor of liberal arts and international studies, was recently appointed by the European Commission, Research Directorate, to an expert group on the global governance of science. The group consists of nine members: five from the EU and one each from China, Norway, South Africa and the United States. The group is tasked with producing a report by the end of the year and then organizing a dissemination conference in Brussels.

Stephen Liu, professor of metallurgical and materials engineering, has been selected for the 2008 American Welding Society Comfort A. Adams Lecture Award. His lecture “Welding in the Deep Oceans: Conquest of the Other Frontier!” was delivered Oct. 6 at the opening ceremony of the 2008 AWS convention in Las Vegas, NV.

Will Vaughan, the school’s new director of technology transfer, comes to Mines with seven years of experience in the Office of Technology Licensing at Ohio State University, and three years at the Governor’s Office of Science and Technology in Columbus, OH.