Colorado School of Mines in top 3 of U.S. `elite' energy schools

The Colorado School of Mines ranks as number 3 of the top 187 U.S. energy universities surveyed by the American Energy Society (AES) this year.

The AES "Top Energy Universities 2020" report, released Sept. 28, surveyed U.S. research universities that have outstanding energy science and technology programs. The report also looked at the school's collaborations with government and industry energy initiatives.

The report cites the Colorado School of Mines for "excellence in all fields, from fossil to sustainable materials and renewable energy," with "small but mighty programs."

Other schools in the top 3 are the California Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University. Also in the top 10 of the "elite" energy schools are Cornell University, MIT, and North Carolina State University.

Research at the Colorado School of Mines includes traditional science and engineering areas associated with mining, plus programs in oil and gas, solar, nuclear, new energy sources, and energy policy. The school has a joint graduate program, Mines-NREL NEXUS, with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, located in Golden, Colorado.

Other energy-related research centers at the school include the Colorado Fuel Cell Center, ConocoPhillips Center for a Sustainable WE2ST (Water-Energy Education, Science and Technology), and the Payne Institute for Public Policy. 

The Colorado School of Mines, known as Mines for short, is a public research university founded in 1874. Located in Golden, Colorado, Mines has 5,100 undergraduate students and 1,400 graduate students this year.