News

Colloidal Dispersions: Where Various Length Scales Become Correlated

On Friday September 5, Colorado School of Mines was honored to hear a lecture on “Colloidal Dispersions: Where Various Length Scales Become Correlated” by Dr. Jared Chun of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Dr. Chun received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University and is now performing and leading research looking at various aspects of structured fluids: multiphase flows, granular materials, and suspension rheology. He is also performing studies on millimeter wave rheometry and the prediction of magnetic permeability of ferrites.

Ebola Mania: Africa in Peril

The first case of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks in Nzara, Sudan and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. The virus is named after the Ebola River, which is located near the town of Yambuku. It has a fatality rate of 50% when treated, up to 90% when left untreated, and is also lethal to non-human primates and duikers (a species of medium sized antelope). The 2014 Ebola outbreak is the largest outbreak in history and the first to occur in Western Africa. The countries currently affected include Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is working together with U.S. government agencies, the WHO (World Health Organization), and other domestic and international partners to prevent the spread of the virus and care for those already infected.

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Spring 2014 Allocation Results

Final Spring 2014 Allocation Results

“Medicine Women of the Plains” as told by Red Feather Woman/Rose Red Elk

In March, Rose Red Elk visited Mines to help campus celebrate Women’s History Month.Rose Red Elk, also known as Red Feather Woman, came in traditional dress and shared songs and stories with the audience. She is a member of the Sioux/Assiniboine Tribes, hailing from the Fort Peck Reservation in northeast Montana. She described how she grew up listening to tribal folk stories but began her career in science and technology. While at Texas A&M, she started that college’s first Native American science and engineering group. She had a promising career at IBM, but decided that her true calling was the arts. She has now been a professional singer and storyteller for over twenty years; she has put out four award-winning albums and is currently working on a comic book for the Department of the Interior.

Trust, technology and expertise in mining conflicts

On March 19th, the Schultz Family Leadership in Humanitarian Engineering Speaker Series kicked off with Dr. Michael L. Dougherty, from Illinois State University. Funded by the CEO of Dauntless Energy, the series will continue twice a semester for the next two years, highlighting social and corporate responsibility.

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What Happened to the Ancient Martian Atmosphere?

On Tuesday, April 22nd, David Brain gave a lecture all about Mars. There has been much discussion about whether or not Mars had water on its surface and what happened to that water. David Brain works at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics as well as the Department of Astrophysics and Atmospheric Science at CU Boulder. He has spent a lot of time studying the surface of Mars, and examining the differences between Mars and Earth that would cause such different environments, when the ancient Martian surface was likely similar to Earth’s modern environment.

“I’m Not an Astronaut but I get to Play One at Work”

Penny Pettigrew has the coolest job in the world—she provides live support for astronauts living on the International Space Station. Pettigrew, who graduated from Colorado School of Mines with a BS in Chemistry in 1992, works for NASA in the Payload Operations Integration Center at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Though Pettigrew has never been to space herself, providing live support to astronauts on the ISS allows her to fulfill that childhood dream.

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EMi Open House

Since 1974 there has been a place for any student wanting to do research work in the field of excavation here at the Colorado School of Mines in the form of the Excavation Engineering and Earth Mechanics Institute (EMI). The institute’s extensive laboratory and computing facilities were opened its laboratory to the general public for an open house during Alumni Weekend. The open house allowed visitors to view laboratory testing equipment as well as talk with staff and student researchers about the work they are currently doing.

Gas Hydrates, Methanogenesis, and Carbon Cycling at Continental Margins

Dr. Alberto Malinverno, an expert in quantitative marine geology, came from Columbia University to deliver a talk on a unique substance from the bottom of the ocean which could someday be an energy source for humanity… but which could also drastically worsen the effects of anthropogenic climate change. The substance is a clathrate, or gas hydrate – methane molecules trapped within the crystal structure of ice. Clathrates are unstable at surface pressure and temperature conditions, preferring low temperatures and high pressures. Because of these unique stability conditions, clathrates are found at depth in places where the temperatures are cold: in permafrost, and at the ocean floor near continental margins, where organic carbon in the sediments provides the methane.

Design of vascular-targeted carriers for optimal performance in humans: bringing blood cells and hemorheology into the game

On March 7, Mines hosted Dr. Omolola Eniola-Adefeso, the director of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She spoke on vascular-targeted drug delivery – that is, the transport of medical drugs directly to the wall of the blood vessels at a specific point in the body, using a man-made carrier with a built-in drug-release trigger. The carriers are modelled after white blood cells.