Colorado School of Mines ranked among nation’s elite energy universities

Colorado School of Mines has been named one of the elite energy universities in the nation by the American Energy Society (AES).

The report, Top Energy Universities 2020, recognized Mines for “excellence in all fields, from fossil to sustainable materials and renewable energy” and its “small but mighty programs.”

AES conducted an analysis of 187 U.S. research universities and colleges with notable energy programs and selected 10 “elite” institutions, including Colorado School of Mines. Other “elites” on the list include MIT, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon and Caltech.

Long a powerhouse in mining, petroleum and the earth sciences, Colorado School of Mines today is home to a wide variety of programs and research related to traditional and novel energy sources, representing everything from oil and gas and solar to the critical minerals required for “green” technologies and the policy frameworks needed to guide the energy transition. 

Energy-related research centers include the Colorado Fuel Cell Center, ConocoPhillips Center for a Sustainable WE2ST (Water-Energy Education, Science and Technology), Payne Institute for Public Policy and the Mines-NREL NEXUS, a joint initiative to strengthen and accelerate collaboration between Mines and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Together in 2019, Mines and NREL launched an innovative Advanced Energy Systems degree program, combining NREL’s world-class research in energy systems with Mines’ internationally recognized research portfolio in exploration and extraction, conversion and storage, sustainable usage, and economics and policy.