FACULTY CHANGES
Drs. Eustes and Sampaio Retire
We had to say goodbye to Drs. Eustes and Sampaio this year. Dr. Eu- stes decided to retire...sort of. He’s not teaching, but Dr. Eustes is now an associate professor emeritus working on a couple special projects.
Dr. Eustes’ decades at Mines meant there were a lot of people he touched. We put the word out every where we could think of and had people from every stage of Bill’s life at Mines attend the virtual reception.
Dr. Sampaio had only been with the depart- ment for about 6 years, but still made a great impact during that time. He taught the completions course solo in the spring be- fore retiring.
These are just some of the many people who attended Dr. Eustes’ virtual
retirement party.
Dr. Sampaio really liked his retirement gift.
Both of these men retiring meant we had no experts in drilling, which lead to a search for a new drilling professor...
Welcome Prof. Tim Sorensen
Hello Orediggers! There are no words to fully describe how overjoyed I am to have come full circle back to Mines as faculty. I began this jour - ney as an undergrad at Mines in 1998, where I thought I wanted to be a physics major. That changed once I took Physics II, and I decided to be a geophysicist instead, then finally settled on geology. After graduating I went into the oilfield as a wellsite geologist and mudlogger. A year later I returned to Mines, but strayed across the street from Berthoud Hall to get my master’s degree with Dr. Miskimins as my advisor. The petroleum sector then pulled me full force to Houston, where I spent the next 14 years. The great majority of that time was spent working for ExxonMobil as an engineer, with instruction of both new hire and mid-career engineers as one of my favorite responsibilities.
I grew up here in the Denver metro area, and it’s lovely to be back. Mines always felt like home, and at the risk of sounding cheesy, I think it always will. But what exactly am I doing here? Great question, so let’s talk about drilling! I’ll be taking on the PEGN 311 and 361 classes, among others, as my primary focus. Drilling engineering has always been a somewhat misunderstood petroleum specialty, and for good rea- son. A large amount of fieldwork is involved and it is the alloy of fine-detail specialties such as facilities engineering and inexact sciences such as reservoir engineering and geology which make it so unique. The other side of drilling which makes it such an ad - venture is the ability to cope when things go wrong, which they inevitably do. If you ever come across a well with no problems at all, please call me, or better yet write a paper about it! Safety, risk management, and field decision-making are always at the forefront of my mind.
As the industry changes and evolves, drilling engineering must change with it. Wellbores are still needed for new fields and old fields, but newer applications in geothermal, sequestration, and disposal are on the rise. Add to this the enormous quantity of wells requiring abandonment and/or remediation, and drilling’s place in the constantly shifting petroleum industry is plain. I plan to incorporate more of these topics into the drilling curriculum, allowing our students to meet these challenges head-on.
I prefer a direct, open communication style, so please reach out to me anytime ( tsorense@mines.edu ). Let us continue this amazing journey together!
Prof. Sorensen with his wife and son at Epcot.
6 COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES
mailto:tsorense@mines.edu