The Colorado School of Mines women’s team won the title of “World Champions” during the 35^thAnnual International Intercollegiate Mining Games held on campus March 13-17. The Mines Men’s A team placed seventh and the B team placed 13^th. 

Forty-one teams from around the world were registered to compete including schools from Australia, England, Canada and the U.S. The games aim to keep the legacy of historic mining practices alive, and build a sense of community between mining schools from around the world. The tradition began in 1978 as a way to honor 91 miners who died in a fire at the Sunshine Mine in northern Idaho. The competition is comprised of seven events including track stand, ore muck, suede saw, gold pan, hand steel, jackleg and survey.

For more information about the games, see the article by Tyrel Jacobsen that appeared in the March 25 issue of The Oredigger newspaper.

For a photo album featuring some of the events, see the Colorado School of Mines Alumni Association Facebook page.

The games attracted media attention by the Denver Post and the Golden Transcript.

From the intellectual to the adventurous, students employed by Mines report that, along with a paycheck, their work provides balance, fun and intellectual stimulation. Having access to a deep pool of driven, high-achieving young men and women is good for Mines, too.

Scooping ice cream or flipping burgers is honorable work for a college student, but some of the job opportunities for Colorado School of Mines students offer a lot more, kick-starting careers, forging community connections and pushing phyical limits. On a headcount basis, more than 60 percent of the individuals employed at Mines are students (40 percent undergraduates), and while most may work only a few hours per week, their cumulative contribution to campus operations is substantial. Interested in finding out which undergraduates had the best gig, we took a survey. Here we bring you our top five and comments from others who caught our attention.

1. Outdoor Recreation Center climbing wall route setters

Andrew Lee, sophomore
Field of study: Chemical engineering

Brandon Conaway, sophomore
Field of study: Geological engineering

When they’re done solving problems in their calculus classes, Andrew Lee and Brandon Conaway head to the Student Rec Center and invent problems for others to solve—climbing problems. “This job puts you in an environment where you can be creative,” says Conaway. “It gives you the opportunity to set routes that challenge your abilities and other students. I think my favorite part, though, is watching people who have never rock climbed before come in and have a blast.”

Lee, who’s the head route setter, has climbed for 12 years. “I get to spend a lot of time getting paid to do what I do best,” he says. “I also get to climb all the other setters’ problems and tweak them if they need to be adjusted.” When asked for his strategy in establishing routes, Lee doesn’t hesitate: “As an experienced climber, you know what’s next; it’s natural. You start with a move or hold and then devise a set of movements to go into it. It just flows. It’s an art form.”

2. Research assistant in the Colorado Fuel Cell Center

Hailey Meyer, first-year sophomore
Field of study: Chemistry and chemical engineering

If Hailey Meyer is the future of renewable energy, we have little to worry about. “Thursdays are my favorite—that’s the day that I work,” she gushes with palpable enthusiasm. She’s at Mines because of the Harvey Scholars Program, which she was invited to apply for last summer while in Spain (“that was an adventure and a half, trying to find an English word processor to write my essay”), and is creating polymers, learning about zero-emission anion-exchange fuel cells that use rock minerals as a catalyst instead of precious metals, and worrying about research funding drying up. Meyer landed a dream job working in renewable energy thanks to work-study funds and a connection she made through a Society of Women Engineers Evening with Industry event last September. “I hope NREL hires me some day,” she confides. “It’s comforting to know that I have a network now. I am one of the lucky ones to find what I am passionate about so early in my college career.”

Read more on the Mines Magazine website. (This story appeared in the Spring 2013 issue.)

One of the leaders of the largest professional society of scientists and engineers in China – who has an interesting historical connection to Colorado School of Mines -- paid a visit to the university Feb. 19.

Dr. Cheng Donghong, vice president and executive secretary of the China Association for Science & Technology (CAST), toured campus labs and met with faculty, staff and students at Mines before giving a talk regarding the activities of her organization.

Dr. Cheng, who has studied physics and has a doctorate in science education, is the descendant of a 1914 graduate of Mines. Her grandfather earned degrees in mining and mechanical engineering and eventually returned to China to make important contributions to mining.

CAST, which is the Chinese counterpart of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is responsible for promoting public science education and scientific research in the largest country in the world.

For more information on CAST, see the organization’s website.

George Saunders ’81 earned a degree in geophysics from Mines, but it turned out he was more interested in probing human culture and society with words than revealing the Earth’s subsurface with technology. Now a renowned author who has been lauded by peers such as Garrison Keillor and Thomas Pynchon, Saunders shares how Mines prepared him for the rigors of writing.

When he spotted the monkeys relieving themselves in the murky river in which he was swimming, George Saunders realized he’d made a big mistake. It was 1982 in the jungle of Sumatra, and the fresh-faced Mines geophysical engineering grad was a year and a half into his first (and what would be his only) job as a field geophysicist. He’d had a few too many and was taking a nighttime swim:

“I’m paddling along and see about 200 of them sitting along our oil pipeline,” he recalls in a warm South Chicago accent that hints at his roots. As monkey feces plop into the river ahead, warning bells sound. “I’m thinking, ‘I wonder if swimming here is okay?’ Turns out it was not.”

For the next seven months, Saunders would struggle with a mysterious Simian virus that left him feeling, as he puts it, “chronically hung-over and about 90 years old.” He opted to quit his job, return to the states and curl up with some Kerouac and his journal. By the time he felt better, he’d made a realization that had been percolating for years. He didn’t want to be an engineer at all. He wanted to be a writer.

“I always loved reading and I loved writing, but it never occurred to me that I could do it for a living,” he says. “I always felt like it was just a guilty pleasure that I indulged.”

Fast forward three decades and Saunders’ ill-fated swim, and the radical career change it led to, have served him well. At 53, the quick-witted, self-deprecating father of two boasts six critically acclaimed books; frequent bylines in The New Yorker, GQ and Harper’s Magazine; and a teaching gig at Syracuse University’s MFA program—one of the nation’s most prestigious creative writing programs.

Continue reading in Mines Magazine...

A 1976 alumnus has contributed $5 million to Colorado School of Mines to support the university’s Underground Construction and Tunneling Program and to provide scholarships for undergraduate students. Of the total funding, $4.5 million was allocated to the university’s underground construction and tunneling education and research – including $3.5 million in faculty support and $1 million in additional startup funds – and $500,000 will go to providing scholarships for undergraduate students.

Generous support from alumni helps to ensure that our promising young students graduate from Mines as capable leaders and problem‐solvers,” said Mines President M.W. “Bill” Scoggins. “This gift is a testament to the success of our alumni, and their desire to support the development of future generations of industry professionals.”

Underground construction and tunneling is a growing area of expertise at Mines that brings together students and faculty from mining engineering, geology and geological engineering, and civil engineering. In 2011, the university established the Center for Underground Construction and Tunneling as an interdisciplinary center for the study of subsurface engineering. Academic programs and research within the center provide student training and education with exposure to industry topics including site characterization, design and construction of underground infrastructures – including water, highway or subway tunnels – and subsurface underground facilities underneath major metropolitan cities.

“The underground construction and tunneling industry relies on a highly skilled engineering workforce and technical innovation that is only possible through interdisciplinary research and education,” said Mike Mooney, professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and acting director of the Center for Underground Construction and Tunneling at Mines. “This financial support will expand our program, helping us to better prepare our students to become the engineering workforce that industry requires to address the increasingly complex challenges faced today.”

The center currently offers an interdisciplinary minor program and area of specialization for undergraduate students, and is developing interdisciplinary degree programs for graduate students. Students in the program participate in focused coursework, industry-driven research, field trips and technical conferences, and have the opportunity to work with industry professionals on special projects and internships. As the program grows, Mines’ students, faculty and industry partners plan to collaborate on new, specialized training and emerging research initiatives related to underground construction and tunneling.

In addition to the support provided for the Mines underground construction and tunneling program, the gift will also support scholarships for non-resident undergraduate students.

“This transformative philanthropic investment helps Mines to remain at the forefront of providing exceptional engineering education programs,” said Executive Vice President for University Advancement Brian Winkelbauer. “Scholarships are critical to attracting a diverse student population and ensuring that we can develop the technically-trained workforce that the world demands.”

Read more about Marquez Hall here.

Mines celebrated the grand opening of a new comprehensive student wellness center named for former Mines Physician Dr. W. Lloyd Wright, Sept. 14, 2012.

The new facility houses a number of student health and wellness services under one roof, including the Mabel M. Coulter Student Health Center, a student health benefits program office, student disability services, a dental clinic and academic and therapeutic counseling.

With more than 6,500 student visits to campus health and wellness facilities each year, the W. Llloyd Wright Student Wellness Center will greatly benefit the campus community by bringing these services together in a single state-of-the-art facility.

The $3.2 million, 10,000-square-foot building has been made possible in large part by the ongoing generosity of F. Steven and Gayle Mooney through their Galena Foundation. Steve Mooney, a 1956 alumnus and secretary of the CSM Foundation Board of Governors, is Dr. Wright’s nephew. He and his wife chose to name the wellness center for Steve’s uncle as a way to honor his service to the university and the Golden community.

Dr. Wright was awarded the Mines Medal in 1986 for his contributions to the campus community as its part-time physician. He practiced in Golden from 1946 until 1980, serving Mines until the late 1960s and later holding medical director positions at Coors Brewery and Rocky Flats. He and his wife, Jodie retired to Paonia, Colorado, where they remain active in their community.

“The impact of the Mooneys’ giving is seen all across the Mines campus, in the geology department, in the athletics arena, and in facilities such as this new wellness center,” said President Scoggins. “We are exceptionally grateful for their support and their enduring commitment to the mission of the university.”

When Russell Badgett Jr. came to Colorado School of Mines in 1936, he was in search of a Rocky Mountain adventure and a strong engineering education that would benefit his family’s Memphis-based construction business. As valedictorian of his high school class, Russell’s keen intellect and technical interests served him well at Mines, and he graduated in 1940 with a degree in mining engineering.

After graduation, Russell enlisted as a naval aviator in 1941, serving in World War II until he was honorably discharged in 1945. After the war, Russell owned and operated coal mines in Western Kentucky for more than 50 years. With his brothers, Rogers Badgett Sr. and Brown Badgett Sr., he pioneered the use of drag lines in surface mining.

Upon Russell’s passing in March 2012, his son Bentley Badgett II, a 1974 Mines alumnus, established the Russell Badgett Jr. Endowed Scholarship to honor his father’s achievements. "Dad enjoyed his time in Golden, and he was obviously very proud of his degree from Mines," Bentley said. "The education he got there was instrumental in what he was able to accomplish."

Bentley was drawn to Mines at the encouragement of his father, and he shares his father’s high regard for the education it gave him. "I wouldn’t trade my Mines experience for the world,” said Bentley. “The professors demanded that we come up with solutions to all kinds of engineering problems. Some of the subjects that didn’t seem so important at the time turned out to be extremely valuable in my career."

When Bentley reminisces about his father, he frequently recalls what they shared—a common interest in minerals and engineering, pride in their degrees from Mines, and a commitment to supporting the communities that nurtured them.  All of this led Bentley to honor his father by creating the Badgett Scholarship, which will assist deserving students in perpetuity.

"If life’s been good to you, it’s important to give back," said Bentley. "Supporting education is a great way to do that. It’s important to our society. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen the difference it makes in a community when people are well-educated."

Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of the electricity used in the United States. Since 1995, about half of that has been generated with uranium from dismantled Russian nuclear warheads, shipped to the U.S. under the Megatons to Megawatts (MTM) program. When the 20-year program wraps up in 2013, about 20,000 nuclear warheads will have been put out of commission.

The useful conversion of so much destructive power (think three warheads a day for 18 years) is an inspiring story, but the deal almost fell apart. Structurally flawed from the outset, the agreement required a decade-long collaborative effort led by private sector nuclear industry partners, with considerable support from the U.S. and Canadian governments.

This effort has not been well covered by the media. Even less has been reported about the role played by Jerry Grandey ’68, who sounded the alarm, helped devise the rescue strategy, rallied support, and for six years led tough negotiations with the Russians that finally corrected the flaws and ensured that the weapons continued to be dismantled.

Continue reading on Mines Magazine.

Exploration geologists can devote entire careers to searching for undiscovered mineral deposits without ever chalking up a find. But for those who do, it’s tremendously rewarding, and many go on to more discoveries. 

In 2001, graduate student Russell Dow was studying satellite imagery of the known Arizaro deposit in Argentina, when he noticed a corona of white on a hill nearby. Samples he took from Lindero a few months later proved his hunch was well founded.

Seated atop a glistening, rock-strewn hillside on a remote plateau in southwest Argentina in 2000, Russell Dow MS ’04 lit a cigarette, took in the view and quietly celebrated a moment many in his line of work go their whole lives without experiencing.

At age 26, just two days into his first field trip for his master’s thesis at Colorado School of Mines, the New Zealand-born exploration geologist had found a virgin deposit that later would be estimated to contain 2 million ounces of easily accessible gold.

“I sat down and thought, ‘Wow. This is it. This might be the one shot in your career where you find something really good,’” recalls Dow. “I relished that moment.”

Such discoveries are exceedingly rare, and getting rarer, as the low-hanging fruit—rich surface deposits easily found—become depleted, requiring intrepid geologists to follow fewer clues deeper below the surface in ever more remote regions. Mines economists estimate it takes 1,000 investigations to generate 100 mineral deposit targets worth drilling. Of those, perhaps one becomes a profitable mine.

This story originally appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of Mines magazine. Click here to read the rest of the story.