Colorado school of mines petroleum engineering department
Be Careful What You Predict
Dr. Ramona M. Graves
Last year I made the statement that “Our student numbers appear to have leveled out”. WRONG! I just finished reading the faculty articles and there is definitely a running theme – a lot of students. I think I hold the record for the biggest session of the sophomore class Rock Properties in the department’s history – 170 students. This class also has a wet lab so I had five sections with five experiments going concurrently. I had teaching assistants (TAs) for the class grading and for each experiment. I ended up with 25 TAs but most were juniors and seniors so your unrestricted donations to the department not only helped with class management but also supported a lot of students – not just for this class but for all of our undergraduate classes. Thank you! To ensure quality and consistency, I taught a “TA class” to show them what I wanted them to teach the students. This number of TAs is probably larger that many of your graduating classes!
Now you might be noticing in the Statistics Box on this page that it says we have 150 juniors. No - 20 of them did not flunk the class (well 20 of them did but they’re coming back). The extra 20 students are from other departments on campus. There were about ten mechanical, civil, and mining engineering students that were hired as drilling engineers and thought it would be a good idea to minor in PE. There were also about ten students that are getting an Energy Engineering minor. The Petroleum Engineering Department is on the Energy Minor Board and the leader of the Fossil Fuel Track. So we have a lot of majors but we are also supporting many other departments whose students will be working in the petroleum industry.
You’ll also notice in the Statistics Box that our graduate student enrollment continues to grow. This fall semester we have 35 new graduate students. This is not an indication that we have lowered our admission standards. In fact, the opposite is true. We’ve increased our admissions requirements, we now have a Graduate Admission Committee, our research volume is at a record high, and the number of applications to the PE graduate program was the highest on campus. We accepted approximate 10% of those that applied and statistically only about 30%-40% of these would enroll in a normal year. This is a very good example that making decisions based on statistics doesn’t always work out – over 80% of the accepted students actually enrolled. The graduate program is becoming as strong as our undergraduate program.
CSM Research Team in front of Shiekh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi
So now you are probably asking yourself how do we do it? If you aren’t asking yourself that, you should be! Your PE faculty continues to be the MOST PRODUCTIVE on campus. Craig said that to the administration for almost 30 years. I’ve repeated it for the last five years. Our new Provost, Terry Parker, recently ran some statistics and told not only me, but all the department heads and division directors, that same thing. We continue to get new faculty support from the administration even though Colorado’s financial situation is not good which translates to the support of higher education declining. Here are some of the faculty changes:
- Dr. Craig W. Van Kirk has retired! Ok, so not completely he still works 50% of the time per Colorado’s retirement rules and we couldn’t continue with our high quality undergrad program without him. He was awarded Emeritus Professor Status for his many years of service to CSM and the Petroleum Engineering Department.
- Dr. Dwayne Bourgoyne left CSM to join his father’s consulting business. I think it was always Dwayne (and Ted’s) dream to work together. The timing was right for both of them. We all wish him much success.
- Dr. Dwayne Bourgoyne left CSM to join his father’s consulting business. I think it was always Dwayne (and Ted’s) dream to work together. The timing was right for both of them. We all wish him much success.
- Provost Parker just gave the PE Department approval to hire 1) a Teaching Associate Professor and 2) a tenure track Assistant Professor. The ads will be in the JPT and the Oil and Gas Journal by the time you read this. Please encourage those you know that might be a good fit for our department to apply.
- To support the growing experimental research and the large number of undergraduate students, we were able to hire another Lab Coordinator. Joe Chen comes to us with a background in the bio and life science area. Al Sami is rapidly turning him oily! You’ll hear from him next year.
Minus 1.5 but Plus 1.0 (and counting)
And Goodbye...
Obituary for Dr. Billy J. Mitchell
Bill Mitchell, Professor Emeritus at the Colorado School of Mines, suffered a stroke that led to his passing Sunday, August 14th, 2011. He was 76 years of age and his body was donated to science, as he wished. Bill Mitchell functioned as roustabout, roughneck, derrick man, toolpusher, rig supervisor, drilling superintendent, drilling manager, and/or drilling engineer on holes in the U.S.A., Abu Dhabi, Argentina, Canada, Dubai, Egypt, Indonesia, andMalaysia; on tender, floater, and land rigs. He was an expert witness in oil well drilling, a computer software analyst, and an author of multiple detailed drilling manuals and handbooks for major corporations and industry. He was a consultant, a renowned lecturer, a business owner, and a multi- millionaire (BJ would just love it that they mentioned this!). Bill Mitchell joined the Colorado School of Mines faculty in 1966 as the professor of oil well drilling within the Petroleum Engineering Department. He became an Associate Professor in 1970 and received full Professorship in 1976. At his retirement in 1996, he was awarded the rank of Professor Emeritus.
Dr. Billy J. Mitchell
Bill was one of my professors in 1977 (drilling and a reservoir class!?) and a colleague from 1981 until his retirement in 1996. I know Bill had a profound influence on many of your careers. I hope you take a few minutes to reflect on him and his career in the industry and at Mines. Many of us in the department (especially Bill, Will, Mark, Linda) have been reminiscing and it seems everyone has a story or ten. But one thing everyone agrees on – Billy was a DRILLER!
Marquez Hall is almost our new home! The group faculty picture is our farewell to Alderson Hall which was Petroleum Engineering’s home since the 50’s. For most of you, Alderson is where you got your start as a PE. For some of you, Marquez Hall, will be the third home for the PE department. Please see the center of this newsletter for pictures and an update on Marquez. The ground breaking ceremony in October was just awesome! Tim and Bernie Marquez and Tim’s parents made the event extra special. As Tim said in his remarks, his father taught him how to use a shovel. The department and the industry as a whole are benefiting from the lesson’s Tim learned. Thanks to the Marquez’s, our alumni, and the industry, we are going to have a great new home for PE. I meet weekly with the architects, engineers, and contractors and they all agree that Marquez Hall is one of the most beautiful (and complex due to our special needs) building they have ever worked on. I’m sure the theme for next year’s newsletter will be the “joys” of moving! There are still naming opportunities so if you don’t see your company on the list or if you would like to personally contribute please see the information in the center.
It is now time to ask for your help. Next year will be our six-year accreditation review from ABET. As part of the review documentation we need feedback from our alumni. Bill Eustes is leading our efforts this time so he asked if I would put in this request:
We are always interested in having our alumni give us feedback on our program. This next year, we will be undergoing our sexennial ABET accreditation process, which makes the feedback all that more important. To make it easier on all of us, we have set up a website at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/H9X3RQC. If you have ten minutes, we would appreciate your feedback at this survey site to help us shape our program’s future trajectory. Many thanks to you for participating.
My time and space have run out! As most of you know, I could go on about the department and all we are doing for pages. I’ll leave you with an explanation of my photos. Our education and research partnership with the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi continues to thrive. Part of the PE, GE, and GP research team traveled to Abu Dhabi in March (see Dr. Kazemi’s article). Another highlight of my year (ok, my entire career) was my visit to Drake’s Well with the PEGN 315 field session. The curator of the museum had never seen anyone so excited so he gave me a small bottle of oil from the original well. (No one will ever convince me that it is not the original oil!!)
Thanks to all for your continued support and keep in touch!
