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 2024 Colorado School of Mines Memorial Scholarship was awarded to:
Rachel Williams, Ph.D. candidate, Geoscience, Colorado School of Mines
Rachel’s dissertation topic is “Facies controls and timing of fracture formation in Permian (Guadalupian)-age muddy and grainy carbonate slope deposits.” She is conducting her field-based research in multiple canyons along the Guadalupe Mountains front, west Texas, under Drs. Zane Jobe and Lesli Wood. The goal of her outcrop work is to constrain the mechanical stratigraphy along depositional strike and dip, focusing on differences between grain-rich facies in the Pinery Member, and mud-rich facies in the Lamar Member, to address the following fundamental research questions: 1) What are the original sedimentary controls on fracture initiation, propagation and termination in terms of products of depositional processes, composition, grain size, bed thickness, and carbonate rock texture?, 2) What fracture types are observed in mid- to lower slope debris aprons, and can we determine their timing (syndepositional, burial, tectonic)?, 3) Are there predictive relationships between fracture aspect ratios (Height/Aperture) and slope processes/resultant geometries/sediment composition/caliber?
Rachel worked in the Oil and Gas industry for 17 years, and is interested in applying integrated sed/strat, structure/fracture, and data analysis workflows from her dissertation research back to the subsurface to support the development of low carbon energy solutions in the Rocky Mountain region. She has a B.A. in Mathematics from Smith College, Northampton, MA, and a M.Sc. in Geosciences from the University of Texas at Austin.
Recent winners of the Colorado School of Mines Memorial Scholarship:
2023
Ahmad Tourei, Ph.D candidate, Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines
Ahmad’s dissertation topic is “Ambient noise interferometry using distributed acoustic sensing to study permafrost degradation in Arctic Alaska.” Ahmad’s work is under the supervision of Dr. Eileen Martin. He intends to characterize thawing of permafrost in Arctic Alaska using near-surface geophysical techniques. Acoustic signals collected with a distributed acoustic sensing cable will be processed using velocity analysis to determine the shallow seismic velocity structure which will be used as an indicator of the geomechanical properties of the degrading permafrost. Ahmad will develop a new algorithm to efficiently process the seismic signal.
Ahmad has a M.S., in Geotechnical Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran and a B.S., in Civil Engineering from the Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
2022
Robert Charnock, MS student, Colorado School of Mines
“Geology of a Climax-type porphyry molybdenum deposit and base-metal mineralized system, Mount Emmons area, Crested Butte, Colorado”