Scholarships
Colorado School of Mines Memorial Scholarship
The Colorado School of Mines Memorial Scholarship is awarded to a CSM graduate student in support of excellence in geoscience research. Applicants focusing on geology, geophysics, or any other earth science-related sub-discipline, are encouraged to apply. This scholarship was initiated by John Lockridge, a prominent petroleum geologist and geologic community leader in Denver, and is supported in his memory by his wife, Erika, friends, and colleagues. John was one of the three founders of the RMAG Foundation, serving as a Trustee for thirteen years.
The 2025 Colorado School of Mines Memorial Scholarship was awarded to:
Christopher Matson, PhD Candidate, Geology, Colorado School of Mines
Chris’ research is to understand the contribution of sedimentary and diagenetic processes on organic matter deposition and preservation in ancient marine sediments that serve as petroleum source rocks. He is studying the Upper Cretaceous Greenhorn Formation to test his hypotheses. The Greenhorn Formation records the global Ocean Anoxic Event 2, which was a severe global carbon cycle perturbation and led to deposition of sediments with high organic carbon content. He will be working with a robust dataset, including existing and newly collected data. Using these data, he will evaluate sediment and organic carbon accumulation rates. Different facies and facies assemblages can have different levels of organic carbon content due to the abundance of siliciclastic material and intensity of bioturbation. The results of his study will help to understand the significance of sedimentary processes in source rock development in a prospective resource play in the Rocky Mountain region.
Chris’ work is under the direction of Dr. Stephen Sonnenberg
Chris has a MS in Sedimentology from the University of Calgary, a BS in Geology from the University of Montana and a BA in Biology from the University of Montana
Recent winners of the Colorado School of Mines Memorial Scholarship:
2024 Rachel Williams, Colorado School of Mines
2023 Ahmed Tourei, Colorado School of Mines
2022 Robert Charnock, Colorado School of Mines