Research Centers

The Advanced Steel Processing and Products Research Center (ASPPRC) is dedicated to attaining excellence in the study of steel.  The Center was initially established by the National Science Foundation as one of over fifty Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers. Thanks to corporate supporters from all over the world, the ASPPRC is now self-sufficient. Cooperation and frequent communication between industrial sponsors and the faculty, staff and students involved in the center forms the basis of the ASPPRC’s success.

Today students at the ASPPRC study primarily three types of steel: bar and forging steels; sheet and coated steels; and plate and hot rolled steels. Students conduct research to work towards either a Master’s of Science or Doctorate of Philosophy. In addition to research, the students work closely with corporate sponsors.

Director: John G. Speer

The The Advanced Water Technology Center (AQWATEC) was established in 2006 at the Colorado School of Mines. AQWATEC is supporting the advancement of the campus thrust areas of water and renewable energy and the NSF funded Engineering Research Center Reinventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt).

Director:  Tzahi Y. Cath

The Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) is a membership-based organization that solves challenges in additive manufacturing (AM) using data informatics–driven approaches. We are headquartered at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

Director: Terry Lowe

The Center for Advanced Non-Ferrous Structural Alloys (CANFSA) is a NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) with an emphasis on conducting state-of-the-art research related to non‐ferrous structural alloys. Founded in 2011, CANFSA currently has sites at the Colorado School of Mines and Iowa State University.  The Center is focused on combining computational modeling (various length and time scales) and experimental approaches (alloying, processing and microstructure/property characterization) in order to advance industrially-relevant projects in an efficient and effective manner.

Director: Michael Kaufman

The Center for Environmental Risk Assessment (CERA)

Director: Christopher Higgins

The Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling (CR3) is an NSF Industry / University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) committed to being the premier cooperative research center focused on sustainable stewardship of the earth’s resources.

Our focus is on helping industry address a pivotal societal need – the need to create a sustainable future. At CR3 you will advance technologies that recover, recycle and reuse materials throughout the manufacturing process. These advancements will help your business reduce energy costs and increase profitability, while protecting our natural resources.

Associate Director: Corby Anderson

The purpose of the Center for Welding, Joining and Coatings Research (CWJCR) is to endorse the science and engineering of welding, joining and coatings, and the advanced education of specialists in these fields. CWJCR promotes and conducts federally and industrially sponsored welding, joining and coatings research.

Our center provides graduate level education, basic and applied research and organizes conferences, workshops, seminars for technology transfer. In addition, all the research is supervised by industrial partners and worldwide recognized scientific institutions.

Director: Dr. Zhenzhen Yu

The Colorado Fuel Cell Center (CFCC) actively develops electrochemical devices to address our nation’s needs in electricity generation and energy storage. Batteries, fuel cells, electrolyzers and membrane reactors are all active topics of research and development.

Director: Neal Sullivan

The Colorado Center for Advanced Ceramics (CCAC) actively pursues ceramics research and education and serves as a national resource of expertise and facilities that industry can draw on to make decisions on the synthesis, processing, and performance of advanced ceramics and composites.

The Center educates materials scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary skills necessary to design and manufacture the ceramic components and composites of the future.

Director: Geoff Brennecka

The Colorado Institute for Energy, Materials and Computational Science (CIEMACS) is an interdisciplinary research center at CSM with a focus on problems at the nexus of energy, materials, and scientific computing.

Director: Colin Wolden

The Energetic (Explosives) Materials  emphasis within the Materials Science graduate program allows students the unique opportunity to investigate material and material properties under dynamic loading, energetic materials undergoing detonation, high-fidelity technology, post-detonation phenomena, and material behavior under large-rate deformation and strain.

Director: Veronica Eliasson

The International Center for Multiscale Characterization (ICMC) 

Director: Brian Gorman

The Kroll Institute for Extractive Metallurgy (KIEM) was established in 1974 in accordance with a bequest from William J. Kroll, world renowned extractive metallurgist best known for his inventions of processes for the production of titanium and zirconium. The financial resources of Dr. Kroll’s bequest were intended to provide for the establishment of a Center for Excellence in Extractive Metallurgy at Colorado School of Mines. Since its inception, the Kroll Institute has provided financial support to both undergraduate and graduate students at Mines, many of whom, subsequently, have made important contributions, nationally and internationally, to the fields of mining, minerals, metals and advanced materials.

Today, the mission of the Kroll Institute is to support the minerals, metals and materials industries through the following activities:

• Maintain expertise and research capabilities important to the minerals, metals and materials industries
• Perform cutting edge research
• Train process engineers for industry
• Develop short courses
• Develop specialty conferences

Director: Patrick Taylor

Formerly the Center for Integrative Materials Joining Science for Energy Applications (CIMJSEA), the Manufacturing and Materials Joining Innovation Center (Ma2JIC) is a National Science Foundation Industry and University Cooperative Research Center involving Ohio State University, Lehigh University, Colorado School of Mines, and the University of Tennessee.

The center works on research projects that include one or more of the following topics:

• advanced joining processes
• innovative process control and automation
• material development
• weldability and characterization
• integrated process modeling

Co-Director: Stephen Liu

 The NSF Engineering Research Center for Re-Inventing Our Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt) 

Director: Tzahi Cath

The Nuclear Science and Engineering Center (NuSEC) supports faculty engaged in research related to nuclear science and engineering at Colorado School of Mines by combining resources and creating infrastructure. NuSEC also manages the research relationship, the space and the infrastructure occupied by Mines researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) TRIGA Reactor on the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado. Participation in the center includes faculty from Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and Physics. Through its research, the center supports undergraduate and graduate students in the programs of the mentioned departments as well as the interdisciplinary graduate program in nuclear engineering.

Director: Jeffrey King

Nexus is a joint initiative that strengthens, accelerates, and enhances collaborative efforts between NREL and Mines. The Mines/NREL Nexus is a strategic partnership that aims to invest in the development of joint responses to grand challenges; catalyze research funding to pursue joint work; and foster exchange of ideas and funding via research or teaching.

Mines Lead: Dr. Ryan Richards, rrichard@mines.edu