Dr. Catherine Skokan earned her bachelor’s, master’s and PhD in Geophysical Engineering from the Mines Geophysics Department. She joined that department in 1975 and continued until 1996, when she joined the engineering department as a tenured associate professor. She continued this position until 2010 and then became a member of the research faculty, regularly working on educational outreach projects with the Trefny Institute for Educational Innovation. Skokan has served Mines in many capacities, traveling extensively with the McBride Honors Program, the Humanitarian Engineering Program, Senior Design and the Music Program. She has traveled around world as a Mines representative for Semester at Sea and as an invited speaker as a Road Scholar.

Dr. Skokan has received many distinctions including Outstanding Young Woman in America Award, Outstanding Professor in Geophysics, Excellence in College Teaching from the Colorado Association of Science Teachers, Alfred Jenni Fellowship Award for Educational Scholarship, Ange Melaragno Service Award for Outstanding Contribution to the McBride Honors Program, and the Gold Award from the Engineering and Environmental Geophysics Society.