| Faculty News
Awards and Recognition
• Dr. Luis Zerpa received the 2022 Mines Petroleum
Engineering Department Faculty Award. Professor Zerpa
was selected for this award by the 2022 senior class for
his dedication to quality teaching, his genuine care for his
students, and for his commitment to enhancing the campus
community.
• Dr. Jennifer Miskimins is being recognized with the
2022 Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum
Engineering Faculty from SPE International. We are so
proud of her and look forward to seeing her honored at the
ATCE awards banquet in October.
• The department was well represented among the Rocky
Mountain SPE Region awards as Dr. Luis Zerpa received the
Regional Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum
Engineering Faculty and Dr. Pejman Tahmasebi received the
Regional Data Science and Engineering Analytics Award.
• We had great nominations from the students for this year’s
Enger award. Professor Sorensen started off their first
semester teaching by being the fall recipient. The choice
was too hard in the spring, so Drs. Miskimins and Zerpa
split it.
Research Tidbits
• Drs. Eustes, Fleckenstein, Kazemi and Miskimmins
completed the final contract for $5.34 million over three
years for the FORGE Geothermal project. They have already
completed the first 6 months of work.
• Dr. Yu-Shu Wu has a new 3-year research project. He’ll be
working with Project PI Baojun Bai and Co-PI’s Thomas
Schuman (MST), and Sujit S. Datta (Princeton University) on
“Innovative Particle Gels for Controlling Preferential Fluid
Flow in Geothermal Reservoirs to Enhance Heat Recovery”.
It’s funded by DOE, $500,000 for CSM, 2022-2024.
• Prof. Sorensen oversaw the move of the Apache Sandvik
DE130 rig to its new permanent custom-built home in the
Bodin drift of the Edgar Mine.
8 COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES
Above: Prof. Sorensen receiving the fall Enger award from Steve Enger.
Left: Dr. Zerpa receiving the Mines Petroleum Department Faculty Award during the campus award ceremony.
Right: Dr. Miskimins receiving the spring Enger award from Dr. Eustes. Co- winner Dr. Zerpa was not able to attend the graduation reception.
Classroom
• We had several volunteers put in a lot of time to as industry
advisors to the PEGN 439, Petroleum Design, course. Bill O’Brien
trained the students in gas-lift design via Schlumberger’s PIPESIM
software and trained students on building and running the black-
oil simulator, IMEX, of the Computer Modeling Group. These
students have been working in teams to prepare field development
plans for the Niakuk field on the North Slope of Alaska. Additional
volunteers included Chet Paris, Geologist; Mike Erwin, Production
Engineer; Curt Golike, Reservoir Engineer; Mike Cook, Drilling
Engineer; and John Barber, Project/Facility Engineer.
• Our data analytics minor continues to grow with the largest class
in our four years of program history. Prof. Crompton continues
to refine the Petroleum Data Analytics minor program to ensure
students are as prepared as possible for entering the workforce.
• Drs. Xiaolong Yin, Luis Zerpa, Linda Battalora and Yu-shu Wu
developed two modules for two new online courses on CCUS:
Physics and Calculation of CO2 Storage in SYGN598BA Geological
CCUS, and Overview of CO2 Sources and Capture Methods in
SYGN 598C Non-Geological CCUS. These two courses are part of
a new four-course online graduate certificate program on CCUS,
the first of its kind offered by an academic institution in the
US! https://online.mines.edu/carbon-capture-utilization-and-
storage-online/
• Prof. Sorensen had the PEGN 311 Drilling class perform the first
subsea well control exercise in the fall. That exercise and safety
analysis and considerations will be a permanent addition to the
curriculum.
• PEGN 361 Completions now has a Procedure Writing project as
part of the course.
https://online.mines.edu/carbon-capture-utilization-and-storage-online/