By the spring of her senior year of high school, Mallory Miller’s plans for her undergraduate education were set. A lifelong western Kentuckian, Mallory planned to stay in-state and focus on civil engineering. She had applied, been accepted and was anticipating moving an August move to what would be home for the next four or [...]

At times, it occurs to Brett Jackson that his background is not that of a typical mining engineering student. For starters, Brett is from Chicago where coal mining was a fairly prominent industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries; however, coal mining operations had left the “City of the Big Shoulders” by the 1960s—long [...]

As a mining engineering professor whose research focus heavily involves mine safety, Dr. Kyle Perry cringes every time he reads about a mining-related fatality. Questions buzz through his mind: What happened? Was the equipment poorly maintained? Was the design wrong or the geology unaccounted for? Is anyone at fault? Was it a random event? The [...]

“There’s really no such thing as long-range planning,” chuckles Dr. Tom Novak as he reviews his diverse professional experience. “If, when I was in high school, you would have told me I would be a university professor for over 30 years, I would have said you were nuts! But I took advantage of opportunities when [...]

For Katie Gardner, a degree in mining engineering is about having options. She began realizing the many choices available to UK mining students when, as a geology student, Katie attended a few Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) meetings. “I saw the job opportunities and the on-campus interviews and switched over,” she says. Since [...]

For Brandy Chenault, being in the mining engineering program is about more than class material, grades and progressing toward a degree; it’s about belonging to a family. “Most of the students in the program have parents or relatives who have worked in mining, but mining has never been in my family’s history. It’s always a [...]

Based on his recent research projects, as well as his recurring role as a demolition expert on a Discovery Channel television show, it could be easy to get the wrong idea about Dr. Braden Lusk. Currently, a large chunk of Dr. Lusk’s active research projects deal with blast mitigation. Working with the Department of Homeland [...]