Dear friends and alumni of Mining and Mineral Processing,
We’re moving up! The QS World Rankings for Mining and Mineral Engineering programs for 2025 have us ranked #10 globally, up from #13 last year. That’s the highest global ranking of any Penn State program. We’re not resting on our laurels. We’ve been busy this year, hosting the 20th North American Mine Ventilation Symposium in June at Southpointe, our second annual MINING ROCKS! Penn State Mining Summer Camp in July, and Mining PA at the Penn Stater in August. We also hosted two additional programs with Mining PA, a workshop on Respirable Crystalline Silica training modules developed through Mine Safety and Health Administration funding and the annual dust conference that Shimin Liu organizes. We received excellent feedback from participants at all events.
Thanks to many of you, our summer camp was offered at no cost to the campers. In addition to alumni support, companies made contributions, and we received grants from WAAIME, the Copper Club, and the Gimme Foundation. We’re already planning for next summer.
We held our second annual Extractive Industries Career Fair in September. Ten companies filled the Steidle Building Atrium for the evening. There’s plenty of room for at least ten more companies. If your company would like to participate next September, please send me an email.
Of course, with the changes in funding by the federal government, we’re scrambling to support graduate students to carry forward much of our research related to health and safety (especially respirable dust work) and fundamental critical mineral work. We’d love to partner with industry on any aspect of mining or mineral processing. Please reach out if you are interested in sponsoring research—no matter how small the project.
In 2026, we’re looking forward to an embedded spring break course with travel to South Africa. Mining is global, and we want our students to have a global perspective! And we’ll continue working on recruiting!!! We still need more students! We need your help!
Look for us at SME MINEXCHANGE 2026! Stop by when you’re in Happy Valley!
Sincerely,
Barbara Arnold, ’82, ’85g, ‘89g
Chair and Professor of Practice of Mining Engineering