Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Aramco, one of the world’s leading integrated energy and chemicals companies, has made a financial gift to Colorado School of Mines’ burgeoning Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem.

For companies like GelSana Therapeutics, Mines is helping solutions developed in the lab find a path to market.

Chris Tolton and Ken Liang, who also founded space startup Orbital Mining Corp., developed power storage and transmission solutions for lunar exploration.

After a career in entrepreneurship, Zack Bennett ’99 is now the founding director of the Mines Venture Program and Beck Venture Center on campus.

As Colorado School of Mines progresses into its next 150 years of producing leaders in science, technology, engineering and math, it’s providing new opportunities to help shape an innovator’s mindset and set graduates up for success in industry and business.

Read more about the Beck Venture Center grand opening on Mines Newsroom >>

Located at 17th Street and Washington Avenue in Golden, the facility offers 31,000 square feet of coworking, networking, event and classroom space for Mines-connected entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, companies and students to learn, collaborate and launch.

GelSana was founded in 2020 by Dr. Melissa Krebs, associate professor in chemical and biochemical engineering at Mines. GelSana’s first product is a novel polymer-based gel called Cleragel, designed to improve wound healing by reducing inflammation.

On the 150th anniversary of the Territorial Assembly establishing Colorado School of Mines as a publicly supported institute of higher education, the campus community came together to celebrate Mines' newest building, the 37,000-square-foot Labriola Innovation Hub.

The District is home to one of the largest collections of innovation and maker spaces on any university campus in the U.S.