STUDENT NEWS
Achievements & Competitions
• Gustavo Barraza was a NSF-REU Intern (The National Science
Foundation funds a number of Research Experiences for
Undergraduate students through its REU sites program. An REU
site consists of a group of ten undergraduates who work in the
research programs of the host institution.) His host institution was
the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis-The University
of Kansas (CEBC-KU). Gustavo’s research project was on Catalysis
of Alkene Epoxidation. Gustavo is working with his mentor to finish
the research and write up their results with a projected publication
in the next year.
• Some of the many external scholarships our student received
include the SPE Dallas Section Scholarships (Nikhil Goud Kadirisani
and Marie Christina Adjiman), SPE Denver Scholarships (Andrew
Menzies, Chiang Cheng Siew, Edgar Juarez, George Roose, Jourdan
Link, Niels Snow, Nikhil Kadirisani, Peter Kvokotov, Philip Dennar,
William Jordan and Brou Marie Adjuman) and WY-SPE Chapter
Scholarship (Gustavo Barraza).
Masters student
Nicole Bourdon
worked on an emissions reduction
project with Cimarex Energy in the Permian Basin.
May 2021 graduates Christina Adjiman, Chiang Cheng Siew, George Roose,
Niels Snow and Clayton Kocot. Image credit: Chiang Cheng Siew
The Mines Undergraduate Research Scholars had two
PE students in the May 2021 cohort: Chiang Cheng
Siew and Brou Marie Christina Adjiman. Siew was a
URS for the last two years and received an honorable
mention in the spring 2020 UG Research Symposium for
her work on “Investigation of Reservoir Rock Properties
Measurement Methods for Sandstone and Shale Sam-
ples”. In the academic year of 2020-2021, Siew worked
as a research fellow for the Economics and Business De-
partment under the Mines Undergraduate Research Fellow-
ship (MURF) on the topics of “Prescribing Optimal Decisions
for Retailers using Retail Analytics” and the “Retail Analytics Analysis on the Influence of COVID-19 Social Distancing Guide - lines in Stores” with her mentor Dr. Tulay Flamand. Christina worked with the mining department for her research regarding sustainability.
The Mines SPE team won second place at the Shell Case Study Challenge. The Mines SPE team members for this competition were Nicholas Bryan, William
Benson, Ethan Anderson, Niels Snow, and Matthew Beckendorf.
Breakthrough! A team of grad students drilled and cored 112 ft from one drift to another at the Edgar Mine. The 3-inch bore hole will be used as part of a fiber optic casing flow-loop. Pictured left to right are Arif Aydar, Prof. Tim Sorensen, Esad Kaya, Kirt McKenna, and Daulet
Gaziz. The bit is just visible over Kirt’s left shoulder.
10 COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES