“After working five years as a production engineer and researcher in the petroleum industry, I realized that professionals who hit the ground and think out of the box would be a key to overcoming challenges the petroleum industry will face in the next 25 years. Because I want to be part of this group of professionals, I made the decision to pursue advanced degrees in order to strengthen my academic and theoretical background, as well as my research skills.

I had the opportunity to visit CSM and meet Dr. Miskimins and Dr. Graves from the Petroleum Engineering Department and was impressed with all the resources students have at Mines: world recognized faculty members; an outstanding commitment for student’s professional development; state of the art computers and software; well documented library; research labs to start new projects; wonderful student services staff; financial support from industry sponsored projects. Few universities promote the interdisciplinary integration as CSM does to develop highly competitive professionals.

One of my research interests is stimulation and hydraulic fracturing for increasing oil and gas production of existing wells. Working as a research assistant in FAST consortium, launched by Dr. Miskimins, is the most interesting and challenging research project in which I have participated. We are building an apparatus to validate and develop new equations to describe the fluid flow through porous media. Results of these experiments will have transcendence in the petroleum industry and any other industry where flow of fluids through porous media is a topic of interest.

Moreover, Golden is a small, nice and quiet city conveniently located only 10 minutes from Denver. I am an outdoor activities lover and Colorado is the Mecca: biking, hiking, skiing, photography, rafting, fishing, and camping. After almost a year of being here, I can say I am proud and happy to be a Miner!”