Chris Higgins, AMAX Distinguished Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, reflects on progress, pitfalls and the path toward meaningful solutions to the PFAS problem.
February 9, 2026
The defense department is infatuated with this drippy silver metal
Ian Lange, professor of economics and business, said the push by the U.S. and other countries to increase gallium production could create a glut of the metal causing the gallium market to crash.
February 9, 2026
Denver Poet Seth Brady Tucker Takes on Masculinity in New Collection
Seth Tucker, teaching professor of humanities, arts and social sciences, discusses his new collection of poetry, The Cruelty Virtues.
February 9, 2026
Study shows PFAS levels dropping in Great Lakes fish
Sara Balgooyen, research industry liaison officer for PFAS@Mines, said the news coming out of her study is great for people who are catching fish in the Great Lakes, or who care about the health of the Great Lakes.
February 8, 2026
Logistics left of boom: Understanding adversary threats to the defense industrial base ahead of conflict
Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute for Public Affairs, co-authored this opinion piece that noted a prominent 2023 wargame found that in a defense of Taiwan, the U.S. would likely exhaust its inventory of critical long-range precision ....
February 6, 2026
PFAS levels in Great Lakes fish are dropping, study finds
Sarah Balgooyen, research industry liaison officer for PFAS@Mines, discusses her study that concluded PFAS levels peaked between 2007 and 2017 in all five of the Great Lakes.
February 6, 2026
America’s rare-earths solution is hiding in plain sight
This guest essay cites a Science article by Elizabeth Holley, associate professor of mining engineering, that concluded the U.S. could meet most of its critical minerals and rare earths needs by reprocessing mine waste streams.
February 6, 2026
U.S. to create $12B critical minerals stockpile
Ian Lange, professor of economics and business, explained that mining companies outside of China are facing Chinese firms that are subsidized by their government and thus have zero cost of capital.
Brandon Dugan, associate department head and professor in geophysics and Baker Hughes Chair in Petrophysics and Borehole Geophysics, explained that the freshened water found in vastly different materials will help his team understand the conditions ....
February 5, 2026
What to know about the critical minerals trading bloc the U.S. wants to build with allies
Ian Lange, professor of economics and business, said it will be important the critical minerals trading bloc to have ways to keep countries from buying cheap Chinese materials on the side.
February 5, 2026
There's a vast freshwater system hidden beneath ocean floor. Scientists just got their first look
Brandon Dugan, associate department head, professor of geophysics and Baker Hughes Chair in Petrophysics and Borehole Geophysics, said his team was excited to see that freshened water exists in multiple kinds of sediments—both marine and terrestrial.
February 5, 2026
How wildfires are causing snowpacks to disappear earlier in different regions in the West
Arielle Koshkin, graduate research assistant and Mines PhD graduate in hydrologic science and engineering, discusses her study that considers how fires impact the speed of later snow melts.