K-14 STEM EDUCATION OuTReacH
The University of Wyoming College of Engineering and Physical Sciences looks forward to the opportunity to engage students and teachers in hands-on learning to build knowledge and understanding in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Strength in K-14 education can enhance the quality and quantity of students who pursue STEM programs at the University of Wyoming and ultimately pursue high-impact careers in Wyoming and beyond.
CLASSROOM VISITS
Our team of CEPS Student Ambassadors can visit classrooms, virtually or in person, to encourage the exploration of the engineering design process.
FOR TEACHERS
Machine Learning for High School Teachers (ML4HST) July 8-11, 2024. Information in QR code below.
Engineering Summer Program for Teachers (ESP4T) July 15-19, 2024. Information in QR code below.
FIELD TRIPS TO CEPS
Led by current engineering students to provide an introduction to our programs. Enjoy tours of the engineering buildings, interactive learning in our makerspaces, hands-on activities, world-class drilling simulator demonstration, and much more!
Features
10 / Capturing CO2 Through Geological Storage
UW research team looks to predict changes in the subsurface during and after injection of carbon dioxide.
14 / Harnessing Earth’s Heat
9H SmartRanch utilizes geothermal stock tanks.
16 / An Arctic Springtime
ATSC researchers study possible effects of cold air outbreaks on Arctic ice melt.
22 / Modeling the Future of Wind Energy
A new modeling method is providing valuable insights to boost wind farms’ energy output.
26 / A Bird’s Eye View
How drone imagery and computer vision algorithms are flying high for conservation.
Departments
02 / Message from the Dean 03 / Alumni in Action 05 / Students in Action 06 / News & Notes 12 / Faculty in Action 20 / News & Notes 29 / CEPS Highlight 32 / Alumni In Memoriam
On the Cover: So many aspects of our world — almost all the things we do, touch and know — comes from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). STEM helps us understand the world and gives us the tools and inventions to improve our lives. In this edition of Foresight, we invite you to discover the relevance of science and engineering in our everyday lives. Cover design by Fernando Lechuga.
UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING
COLLEGE
OF
ENGINEERING
AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Carrell Family Dean Cameron Wright
Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education
David Mukai
Associate Dean, Graduate Education David Bagley
Associate Dean, Research Daniel Dale
Assistant Dean for Student Success Cindy Jones
Director, Business Operations Mēgan Barber
College Affairs Coordinator Mindy Zwieg
Departments:
Atmospheric Science
Jeff French, Head
307-766-3245 | uwyo.edu/atsc
Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
Saman Aryana, Head
307-766-2500 | uwyo.edu/chemical
Chemistry
Brian Leonard, Head
307-766-4363 | uwyo.edu/chemistry
Civil and Architectural Engineering and Construction Management
Tony Denzer, Head
307-766-2390 | uwyo.edu/civil
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Bryan Shader, Interim Head
307-766-2279| uwyo.edu/EECS
Energy and Petroleum Engineering
Vamegh Rasouli, Head
307-766-4258 | uwyo.edu/petroleum Geology and Geophysics
Dario Grana, Interim Head 307-766-3386 | uwyo.edu/geolgeophys
Mathematics and Statistics
Jason Williford, Head 307-766-4221 | uwyo.edu/mathstats
Mechanical and Energy Systems Engineering
Ray Fertig, Head 307-766-2122 | uwyo.edu/mechanical Physics and Astronomy
Jinke Tang, Head 307-766-6150 | uwyo.edu/physics
Editors Caitlyn Spradley, Micaela Myers and Chad Baldwin
Graphic Design Michelle Eberle, Emily Edgar and Fernando Lechuga
Photography Ted Brummond and Andrew Wee unless noted
*Thank you to all contributing writers for creating a dynamic and diverse collection of content.
Foresight is created twice per year as a collaboration between CEPS and UW Institutional Marketing. For extra copies, contact caitlyn.spradley@uwyo.edu. For address changes, please email fdn-bio-update@uwyo.edu
The University is committed to equal opportunity for all persons in all facets of the University’s operations. All qualified applicants for employment and educational programs, benefits, and services will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law and University policy.
STEM IS EVERYWHERE
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
So many aspects of our world — almost all the things we do, touch and know — come from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). STEM helps us understand the world and gives us the tools and inventions to improve our lives.
How do things work? What’s involved? It’s fascinating to break it down and understand how everyday activities link to STEM, encouraging everyone to see the relevance of science and engineering in their everyday lives.
In this edition of Foresight, discover how our faculty are creating innovative opportunities to increase students’ interest and knowledge in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Learn more about how our students are making an impact as leaders in their STEM fields, as we provide them with an educational experience, both inside and outside the classroom, preparing them for careers in competitive STEM industries or to continue their education through graduate or professional studies.
These are exciting times to be in STEM, and our College is committed to being at the forefront as the world of STEM continues to evolve at an astonishing pace. Current trends in STEM fields are not just driving technological advancements; they are shaping the way we live, work and interact with the world around us.
Discover how one University of Wyoming College of Engineering and Physical Sciences alumnus explains the impact his education has had on shaping his energy industry journey and the outlook he has for the future.
Read how we are committed to building upon the existing strengths of our College’s people and programs to establish and sustain a supportive environment that values education and exploration.
Whether you are a current student, prospective student, parent, alumnus or friend, I hope that you will enjoy learning more about our College as you explore this issue of Foresight, and I invite you to visit us on campus to see and experience first-hand what the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences has to offer.
Sincerely,
Cameron H.G. Wright
Carrell Family Dean College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Top Engineering and Physical Sciences Honors Awarded at Spring 2024 College Awards Banquet
The College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and the Wyoming Alpha chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society, have announced the award recipients for 2024. The awards were presented at the annual College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Awards Banquet this spring semester at the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center. The College of Engineering and Physical Sciences would like to congratulate this year’s award recipients.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – WYOMING EMINENT ENGINEER OR SCIENTIST
Vince Garcia, a 1987 civil engineering graduate, is the manager of the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s Geographic Information Systems and Intelligent Transportation Systems Program. He leads a team that drives innovation within Wyoming’s transportation sector and oversees state-of-the-art technologies that enhance the safety and efficiency of the state’s transportation network. Garcia’s focus is on the safety of the citizens of Wyoming, and his team established a statewide Transportation Management Center and deployed pre-trip, roadside and in-vehicle intelligent transportation systems. Garcia and his team have been at the forefront of connected vehicle technology, which promises to revolutionize the way we navigate our roads.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – DISTINGUISHED ENGINEER
William Lapsley, a 1970 civil engineering graduate, began his 54-year career as a junior engineer at the Los Angeles Flood Control District. After the record-breaking earthquake in 1971, he and his team were selected by the district’s chief engineer to investigate the stability of the district’s 14 large flood-control dams. He moved to North Carolina to join the Hendersonville Water and Sewer Department as director and then established his own private consulting firm in Hendersonville — William G. Lapsley & Associates PA. This firm became a prominent engineering consultant for local government, private land developers, and industrial clients. After selling this business, Lapsley served as an elected official on the Henderson County Board of Commissioners.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – ALUMNUS EMINENT ENGINEER OR SCIENTIST
Gene Humphrey, a 1973 mechanical engineering graduate, is co-founder of 9H Research Foundation, which supports UW’s efforts in clean energy research and education. Humphrey is the retired president and co-founder of the semiconductor technology company called International Test Solutions. A Burns native, Humphrey owns 9H Ranch in Albany County, upon which he is creating a solar energy research facility that will donate its energy proceeds to the university while also creating research and curriculum opportunities for students and faculty members.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - HALL OF FAME
Andy Krieger earned a bachelor’s in biology and a master’s in petroleum engineering at UW. His first job out of college — as an interventions engineer in Anchorage, Alaska — turned into a successful career 28 years and counting. Today, Krieger is the senior vice president of the Gulf of Mexico and Canada region for BP (formerly British Petroleum), one of the largest deepwater production businesses in the world. The region is an important part of BP’s hydrocarbons business, which is a key pillar in the company’s global production and operations.
Top Engineering and Physical Sciences Honors Awarded at Spring 2024 College Awards Banquet
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - HALL OF FAME
Kim Krieger is a 1996 petroleum engineering graduate serving as vice president of midstream for BPX, BP’s onshore oil and gas business. BPX safely and sustainably gathers and processes over 350,000 barrels per day of equivalent production and over $1 billion in new infrastructure investment. As a part of the bpx executive team, Krieger is delivering on a shared vision to disrupt U.S. onshore operations with rapid innovation and game-changing technologies. Prior to moving to bpx, Krieger served in engineering and leadership roles for BP in Alaska, Trinidad, and the Gulf of Mexico.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - HALL OF FAME
Pat Tyrrell earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering in 1979 and master’s in civil engineering in 1982 from UW. After graduation, he worked for WWC Engineering, Wenck Associates, Arco Coal Co. at the Black Thunder Mine, and States West Water Resources Corp. In 2001, Tyrrell was appointed the Wyoming State Engineer by Gov. Jim Geringer. In this role, he was the chief water official for the state of Wyoming, overseeing state compliance with interstate compacts and court decrees in addition to managing the permitting, use, and adjudication of all of Wyoming’s surface and groundwater resources. Tyrrell served during the administrations of four governors and retired in 2019, the longest-serving state engineer in Wyoming history.
OUTSTANDING FACULTY AWARDS
Outstanding
Undergraduate Teaching Award: Jorge Flores-Matute, academic professional lecturer, Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
Sam D. Hakes
Outstanding Graduate Research and Teaching: Morteza Dejam, associate professor, Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering.
OUTSTANDING STAFF AWARDS
Tau Beta Pi
Outstanding Staff: Jeremiah “Jerry” Schuchardt, office associate, Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Outstanding Staff: Mēgan Barber, director of business operations, Dean’s Office.
OUTSTANDING STUDENT AWARDS
Joint Engineering and Physical Sciences
Council Outstanding Senior: Alicia Thoney, Sheridan.
Wyoming Engineering Society Student Engineer of the Year: Hannah Hood, Cheyenne.
Tau Beta Pi
Outstanding Member: Anna Steele, Cheyenne.
Grad Student Wins Lyman and Margie McDonald Research Award for Wildlife
Quantitative
Analysis
University of Wyoming statistics graduate student Allie Midkiff, from Liberty, Mo., was named the winner of the Lyman and Margie McDonald Research Award for Quantitative Analysis in Wildlife.
“I am thrilled and humbled to receive the Lyman and Margie McDonald Research Award for Quantitative Analysis in Wildlife,” Midkiff says. “This award validates the importance of research in optimizing wildlife survey methods and underscores the significance of collaborative efforts in conservation science.”
To win the award, Midkiff had to fulfill a number of criteria relating to the impact, scholarly value and practical value of her research. The award, designed to provide monetary support to UW graduate students in zoology and physiology as well as mathematics and statistics, will help support Midkiff’s continued research in the field of wildlife ecology.
Midkiff’s project, titled “Using State-Space Models to Evaluate Uncertainty in Competing Survey Designs for Monitoring Pronghorn Abundance and Recruitment at the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex,” is focused on finding cheaper and safer ways for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to survey pronghorn in the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge complex. The refuge in Oregon and Nevada, one of the largest in the entirety of the continental U.S. at over 840,000 acres, stands as one of the few remaining bastions of vital sagebrush steppe habitat, which is crucial for sustaining pronghorn populations.
Kevin Kilbride, USFWS Region 1 inventory and monitoring coordinator, recognizes the importance of Midkiff’s research.
“This project is vitally important to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in assessing the sampling design for the pronghorn survey to gain efficiencies (that) are essential to continue to conduct this important survey in a cost-effective and safe manner while maintaining the quality of information derived from it,” Kilbride says.
Midkiff not only earned high praise from the USFWS, but also from UW College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Department of Mathematics and Statistics Professors Tim Robinson and Shaun Wulff, who co-supervised Midkiff’s research.
“Our program is extremely grateful to Lyman and Margie McDonald for their sponsorship of this award,” Robinson says.
Midkiff’s project is associated with her master’s data analysis capstone project, a requirement of all UW master’s candidates, which allows students to gain hands-on experience applying the skills and knowledge that they have gained in the classroom to real datasets with real questions.
“These projects often involve tackling complex, openended problems where the student builds their consulting portfolio and prepares them for the workforce,” Robinson says. “The Lyman and Margie McDonald Award has a highly competitive pool of applicants, and Allie should feel very proud that her project has received this recognition.”
“This is indeed a challenging and important research project,” Wulff says. “We are excited to have our top graduate students, like Allie Midkiff, engaged in opportunities like this where they can make important statistical contributions.”
To learn more about UW statistics graduate program and capstone projects, visit uwyo.edu/uw/ degree-programs/statistics-ms.html
Jifa Tian, an assistant professor in the UW Department of Physics and Astronomy and interim director of UW’s Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering, and a research team at UW have created an innovative method to control tiny magnetic states within ultrathin, two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals magnets — a process akin to how flipping a light switch controls a bulb.
UW RESEARCHERS UNLOCK POTENTIAL OF 2D MAGNETIC DEVICES FOR FUTURE COMPUTING
By Ron Podell
Imagine a future where computers can learn and make decisions in ways that mimic human thinking, but at a speed and efficiency that are orders of magnitude greater than the current capability of computers.
A research team at the University of Wyoming created an innovative method to control tiny magnetic states within ultrathin, two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals magnets — a process akin to how flipping a light switch controls a bulb.
“Our discovery could lead to advanced memory devices that store more data and consume less power or enable the development of entirely new types of computers that can quickly solve problems that are currently intractable,” says Jifa Tian, an assistant professor in the UW Department of Physics and Astronomy and interim director of UW’s Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering. Tian was corresponding author of a paper, titled “Tunneling
current-controlled spin states in few-layer van der Waals magnets,” that was published in Nature Communications, an open access, multidisciplinary journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research in all areas of the biological, health, physical, chemical, Earth, social, mathematical, applied and engineering sciences.
Van der Waals materials are made up of strongly bonded 2D layers that are bound in the third dimension through weaker van der Waals forces. For example, graphite is a van der Waals material that is broadly used in industry in electrodes, lubricants, fibers, heat exchangers and batteries. The nature of the van der Waals forces between layers allows researchers to use Scotch tape to peel the layers into atomic thickness.
The team developed a device known as a magnetic tunnel junction, which uses chromium triiodide — a 2D insulating magnet only a few atoms thick — sandwiched between two layers of graphene. By sending a tiny electric current — called a tunneling current — through this sandwich, the direction of the magnet’s orientation of the magnetic domains (around 100 nanometers in size) can be dictated within the individual chromium triiodide layers, Tian says.
Specifically, “this tunneling current not only can control the switching direction between two stable spin states, but
also induces and manipulates switching between metastable spin states, called stochastic switching,” says ZhuangEn Fu, a graduate student in Tian’s research lab and now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland.
“This breakthrough is not just intriguing; it’s highly practical. It consumes three orders of magnitude smaller energy than traditional methods, akin to swapping an old lightbulb for an LED, marking it a potential game-changer for future technology,” Tian says. “Our research could lead to the development of novel computing devices that are faster, smaller and more energy-efficient and powerful than ever before. Our research marks a significant advancement in magnetism at the 2D limit and sets the stage for new, powerful computing platforms, such as probabilistic computers.”
Traditional computers use bits to store information as 0’s and 1’s. This binary code is the foundation of all classic computing processes. Quantum computers use quantum bits that can represent both “0” and “1” at the same time, increasing processing power exponentially.
“In our work, we’ve developed what you might think of as a probabilistic bit, which can switch between ‘0’ and ‘1’ (two spin states) based on the tunneling current controlled probabilities,” Tian says. “These bits are based on the unique properties of ultrathin 2D magnets and can be linked together in a way that is similar to neurons in the brain to form a new kind of computer, known as a probabilistic computer.
“What makes these new computers potentially revolutionary is their ability to handle tasks that are incredibly challenging for traditional and even quantum computers, such as certain types of complex machine learning tasks and data processing problems,” Tian continues. “They are naturally tolerant to errors, simple in design and take up less space, which could lead to more efficient and powerful computing technologies.”
Hua Chen, an associate professor of physics at Colorado State University, and Allan MacDonald, a professor of physics at the University of Texas-Austin, collaborated to develop a theoretical model that elucidates how tunneling currents influence spin states in the 2D magnetic tunnel junctions. Other contributors were from Penn State University, Northeastern University and the National Institute for Materials Science in Namiki, Tsukuba, Japan.
The study was funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Energy; Wyoming NASA EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research); the National Science Foundation; and the World Premier International Research Center Initiative and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, both in Japan.
Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine Celebrates Launch at UW
By Bryce Tugwell
A regional effort to expand research and innovation that will shape the future of carbon management technologies has launched at the University of Wyoming and its partners.
A kickoff event for the Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine (CO-WY Engine) took place at UW, attended by prominent figures, including Gov. Mark Gordon; UW President Ed Siedel; Mike Freeman, CEO and principal investigator of the CO-WY Engine; and Parag Chitnis, UW’s vice president for research and economic development.
The CO-WY Engine was one of 10 groundbreaking initiatives nationwide selected to receive funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Regional Innovation Engines program. With an initial award of up to $15 million over two years and potential funding of up to $160 million over 10 years, the CO-WY Engine is set to be at the forefront of environmental and climate technology innovations.
“As we launch the CO-WY Engine, our commitment extends beyond advancing climate resilience technology; we aim to drive substantial economic development throughout Wyoming. This initiative is not just an investment in our future but a strategy to harness innovation and foster collaboration,” Freeman says. “By creating new job opportunities and strengthening our economy, the engine acts as a catalyst for transformative growth, turning regional challenges into opportunities for prosperity. This launch of the CO-WY Engine marks a pivotal moment not only for our region, but for the broader fields of environmental monitoring and sustainable technology.”
In addition to UW, the collaborative effort includes major research institutions, such as Colorado School of Mines, Colorado State University, the University of ColoradoBoulder, the University of Colorado-Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of Northern Colorado.
In Wyoming, the state’s community colleges, the Wyoming Business Council, the Department of Workforce Services and UW’s High Plains American Indian Research Institute also play critical roles. Moreover, UW is partnering with the National Center for Atmospheric Research-Wyoming Supercomputing Center to support this extensive project.
For more information about the CO-WY Engine and to follow its progress, visit www.co-wyengine.org
WATCH A VIDEO
Two UW Student Teams Advance in NASA Design Challenge
Two teams of University of Wyoming students have been selected to advance to Phase 2 in NASA’s 2024 Micro-g Neutral Buoyancy Experiment Design Teams (NExT) engineering design challenge.
Seven undergraduate students in the UW College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, dubbed the UW Crater Cowboys, designed and built the Little Lunar Saddlebag, a hand carrier device that can be used to store and move tools during lunar extravehicular activity in microgravity. Team members include Maria Allen, of Parker, Colo.; Hanna Detmer, of Sheridan; Autumn Highland, of Cheyenne; Hunter Kindt, of Cody; Ivan Leon and Michael Richardson,
of Green River; and Erin Poyer, of Rock Springs.
Additionally, eight undergraduate students in the UW College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, dubbed the UW Space Cowboys, designed and built the Flag Assembly with Shark-Stake and Tether, a lunar flag, flagpole and anchoring system that can be deployed on the lunar surface. Team members include Brian Baker and Jake Kravetsky, both of Jackson; Jakob Borrman, of Loveland, Colo.; Daemon Carroll, of Smithfield, Va.; Joshua Gardner, of Pensacola, Fla.; Eduardo Mendoza, of Powell; JW Mills, of Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Jacob Wells, of Cheyenne.
“I am so pleased with the efforts
that I’ve seen these teams put forth and am proud that students from the mechanical engineering department will again be able to represent UW in the Micro-G NExT challenges,” says Kari Strube, an assistant lecturer of mechanical engineering and team adviser. “Last year, I was impressed with the dedication shown by our students, who had a successful test of their zip-tie installer, and I expect that this year’s groups will perform equally well in their challenges. They both have been working hard to continue to refine their designs, and I look forward to seeing them test their finished products in NASA’s facilities.”
Micro-g NExT encourages undergraduate students to design,
UW Crater Cowboys group photo features (left to right): Maria Allen, Hanna Detmer, Autumn Highland, Hunter Kindt, Ivan Leon, Erin Poyer and Michael Richardson.
build and test a tool or device that addresses an authentic, current space exploration challenge. The experience includes hands-on engineering design, test operations and public outreach. Micro-g NExT provides a unique opportunity for students to contribute to NASA’s missions, as the design challenges are identified by NASA engineers as necessary in space exploration missions.
“This experience has been eyeopening, because it feels more like a real work environment rather than just a project for class,” Kindt says.
Each year, a new list of challenges aligned to future space exploration missions is identified. These challenge descriptions are NASA-unique opportunities to support future deep space exploration and Artemis missions. Teams are encouraged to participate in Micro-g NExT and contribute to the history of Artemis efforts to return to the moon and in preparation for human exploration to Mars and beyond.
Crater Cowboys
The UW Crater Cowboys are participating in the first challenge. The objective is to design a hand carrier for lunar extravehicular activity tools that can be adjusted to at least two different heights — short for transport and tall for working at the sampling site. The team took inspiration from familiar everyday items, modifying them to solve a new problem.
“The Little Lunar Saddlebag resembles a music stand, with the height change mechanism inspired by weight-lifting equipment,” Allen says.
The importance of a hand carrier for lunar extravehicular activity tools in space is mission critical.
“The Little Lunar Saddlebag plays a vital role in the collection of geological lunar samples by providing astronauts with means of transporting and
accessing tools during extravehicular activities,” Poyer says.
Space Cowboys
The UW Space Cowboys are participating in the second challenge. The objective is to design a lunar flagpole and anchoring system that can be deployed on the lunar surface. While traditionally the flag has been anchored using something like a garden stake, the goal of this challenge is to improve upon that method by increasing the flag height, improving stability and making it easier for the astronaut to install.
“The inspiration for the design of the flag is varied — taking from numerous ideas proposed by individual members — but, if we had to choose one feature that we feel is the most unique to the design, it would be the fins used to anchor the design, which pull inspiration from arrowheads, camping stakes and, of all things, shark fins,” Carroll says.
As NASA is challenged to go forward to the moon during the Artemis missions, an important and symbolic task during extravehicular activities will be to deploy a flag on the lunar surface.
“The return to the moon is an important moment for all Americans. The flagpole design helps to enable a sense of pride and unity in the general public,” Baker says.
Both devices, the Little Lunar Saddlebag and the Flag Assembly with Shark-Stake and Tether, were delivered to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston at the end of April, and the UW teams participated in a test readiness review. Micro-g NExT coordinators and NASA personnel examined each of the UW teams’ devices, along with those of other selected teams, to ensure their operation procedure is clear and safe for the astronauts.
Teams traveled to Houston in June to have their projects tested by professional divers in the NASA Johnson Space Center Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, a simulated microgravity environment.
“I believe I can speak on behalf of the team when I say this experience has been amazing, and we are so excited to have made it to Phase 2 and have the
“The return to the moon is an important moment for all Americans. The flagpole design helps to enable a sense of pride and unity in the general public.”
— Brian Baker
opportunity to test the Little Lunar Saddlebag in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at the Johnson Space Center,” Highland says. “This team is composed of some amazing individuals whose hard work and collaboration cannot go unrecognized.”
“As a team, we are excited to move into Phase 2 of the challenge,” Kravetsky says. “We liked designing and iterating on our flagpole, but being able to build and test it is going to be a great experience.”
To learn more about the NASA Micro-g NExT challenges, visit microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/ about-micro-g-next.
Capturing CO2 Through Geological Storage
UW research team looks to predict changes in the subsurface during and after injection of carbon dioxide.
Have you ever looked at the smoke coming out of the chimney of a factory and thought how great it would be if we could somehow capture that plume and make it vanish? It sounds futuristic but it is the fundamental idea behind carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage.
“CO₂ storage helps to prevent CO₂ from entering the atmosphere and contributing to global warming,” says Dario Grana, a professor and Wyoming Excellence Chair in the University of Wyoming Department of Geology and Geophysics. “By capturing and storing CO₂ emissions, storage technologies can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of industries like power generation, cement production and steel manufacturing.”
CO₂ occurs in the Earth’s
atmosphere, but it is also emitted by cars, planes and power plants, and is one of the causes of air pollution. The increasing concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere is also responsible for global warming, because it creates a greenhouse effect by trapping solar energy and preventing the heat from returning directly to space, resulting in a warmer planet.
“The concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere has been consistently increasing since the industrial revolution, and such increase has been more rapid in the last 50 years,” says Grana.
The temperature of the Earth’s surface depends on three factors — the amount of incoming solar light, the ability of Earth’s surface to reflect the sunlight and the concentration of greenhouse gases.
So, how do we save the Earth?
“Energy efficiency and renewable energy are the most sustainable solutions to mitigate global warming, but to reduce CO₂ emissions by 50 percent by 2050, it is necessary to implement geoengineering methods
to capture CO₂ from industrial installations and/or to reduce the incoming solar energy,” says Grana.
Two such geoengineering methods include carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation management.
“Carbon dioxide removal aims at reducing the concentration of CO₂ by capturing it from the atmosphere and storing it somewhere or converting it into something else,” says Grana. “An example of carbon dioxide removal is geological storage, where CO₂ is captured from the atmosphere and stored underground.”
According to Grana, one of the main challenges for a successful implementation of carbon storage in deep saline formations is the ability to reliably monitor the CO₂ plume migration and the reservoir conditions after injection starts.
“Due to the complexity of geological structures in the ground and the lack of spatially exhaustive datasets with direct measurements of rock and fluid properties, assessment of the potential storage and forecasting of the reservoir conditions, such as CO₂ plume
location and pressure front extent, are extremely uncertain,” says Grana.
The goal of Grana’s research team is to develop an innovative modeling framework to predict the location of the CO₂ plume and pressure front extent, quantify the uncertainty in the model predictions, and update the model every time new measurements are available.
“By updating the model with geophysical data, we aim to reduce the uncertainty in the initial or pre-injection model and obtain more accurate and precise model predictions,” says Grana.
Grana’s research group is working on
two case studies that include a feasibility study in the Rock Springs Uplift, Wyoming, and a monitoring study in the Johansen Formation, Norway.
The Rock Springs Uplift is near the Jim Bridger Power Plant, which releases a large quantity of CO₂ into the atmosphere. There are two main formations in the Rock Springs Uplift that are considered potential storage units — the Weber Sandstone and the Madison Limestone formations.
“The goal of the feasibility study at the Rock Springs Uplift is to predict how much CO₂ can be stored and where the CO₂ flows,” says Grana. “This is achieved by combining
Department of Geology and Geophysics
Professor and Wyoming Excellence Chair Dario Grana’s research team is working to develop an innovative modeling framework to better predict carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage underground.
geological and mathematical models to create a numerical image of the storage units and quantify the rock and fluid properties.”
The Johansen Formation is a potential CO₂ storage site located offshore underneath a hydrocarbon reservoir, where the goal of the monitoring study is to predict the fluid flow of CO₂ for a large period of time to prove that CO₂ does not migrate back to the surface.
“Our research team combines geostatistical methods, fluid flow simulations, geophysical surveys and machine learning algorithms to predict and quantify the uncertainty of fluid and pressure conditions at every time of the CO₂ storage process — before, during and after injection,” says Grana. “This assessment allows predicting the uncertainty in the storage capacity as well as in the CO₂ plume location and pressure front extent. The accurate quantification of these properties for carbon storage studies allows successful risk analysis and decision making for CO₂ storage studies.”
To learn more about the research, contact Grana at dgrana@uwyo.edu .
Professor Emerita to Co-Chair Study on Nation’s Mineral Resources
Professor Emerita Carol Frost, of the University of Wyoming’s Department of Geology and Geophysics, will co-chair a consensus study led by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine titled “Optimizing the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Mineral Resources Program Science Portfolio.”
“National Academies studies are an important source of independent, objective and nonpartisan advice, with high standards of scientific and technical quality,” Frost says. “As division director at the National Science Foundation
(NSF), I commissioned one of these studies to identify future research directions and important areas for NSF funding. It is an honor now to be leading a study that will provide advice to the USGS.”
The study will examine the USGS Mineral Resources Program science portfolio to address the question of how it needs to evolve to meet current and future U.S. mineral resources data and science needs.
“Energy transition technologies from wind turbines and solar panels to electric vehicles and battery storage require a wide range of minerals and metals,” Frost says. “The USGS wants to ensure it is prepared to help meet those critical mineral requirements.”
The study will assess the alignment between the Mineral Resources Program’s research and products with national needs for mineral resource data, information and science.
The study which began this past spring will be completed within about 18 months, when a public report is issued. According to the Energy Transitions Commission’s
“Material and Resource Requirements for the Energy Transition,” between 2022-2050, the energy transition could require the production of 6.5 billion tons of end-use materials, 95 percent of which would be steel, copper and aluminum, with much smaller quantities of critical minerals, such as lithium, cobalt, graphite or rare earths.
There is no fundamental shortage of any of the raw materials to support a global transition to a net-zero economy: Geological resources exceed the total projected cumulative demand from 2022-2050 for all key materials, whether arising from the energy transition or other sectors.
The key issues are:
• Ramping up supply fast enough to decarbonize the global economy at the pace required.
• Ensuring mining for key materials occurs in a sustainable and responsible way that manages and minimizes local environmental impacts.
Signed into being by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide expert advice on some of the most pressing challenges facing the nation and world.
Frost earned her A.B. (1979) from Dartmouth College and her Ph.D. (1984) from the University of Cambridge, both in earth sciences. She joined the UW Department of Geology and Geophysics in 1983 and also served in various administrative roles, including as associate provost, associate vice president for research and vice president for special projects. From 2014-18, she served as the director of NSF’s Division of Earth Sciences.
She also has served as president of the Mineralogical Society of America and as science editor of the journal Geosphere. Frost is currently a non-executive director of the British Geological Survey.
Frost’s research focuses on the origin and evolution of the continental crust; the classification and petrogenesis of granites and related rocks; and the application of environmental isotopes to problems related to energy and the environment.
For information about the USGS Mineral Resources Program study committee members and statement of task, visit bit.ly/usgs-mrp.
To learn more on the National Academies’ consensus studies, visit bit.ly/nasem-process
XIANG ZHANG RECEIVES NSF AWARD FOR ADVANCED COMPOSITE MATERIALS RESEARCH
College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Department of Mechanical
Engineering Assistant Professor Xiang Zhang has received nearly $600,000 from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) CAREER Program to help fund his team’s research activities for the next five years.
“I almost jumped out of my chair when the program manager contacted me about this award,” Zhang says. “I am so excited that all the efforts I put into this development are recognized. I’m extremely grateful for the support and help I’ve received from my colleagues, collaborators, students, families and friends along the way.”
The award, titled “CAREER: Multiscale Reduced Order Modeling and Design to Elucidate the Microstructure-Property-Performance Relationship of Hybrid Composite Materials,” will allow Zhang’s team at the Computations for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Laboratory to leverage their multiscale modeling and design expertise to study the fundamental microstructureproperty-performance relationship of advanced composite materials and push their limits in engineering applications.
Zhang and his team are incredibly excited and grateful for this opportunity to advance stateof-the-art research in the area of multiscale computational mechanics and mechanics of materials while integrating the research development into next-generation education and workforce development.
“In state-of-the-art nonlinear composite microstructure modeling/ design, computational costs have been identified as one of the major limiting factors, preventing the understanding of the microstructure-
property-performance relationships of complex nonlinear composite materials and the application of these methods in engineering practice,” Zhang says. “This CAREER award aims to develop a seamlessly integrated education and research program to advance state-of-the-art multiscale modeling/design approaches and machine learning techniques to elucidate the microstructure-propertyperformance relationship of advanced composite materials and prepare the next generation with a background in composites and modeling to support the nation and state’s technology innovation in energy and various other industries.”
Through the CAREER Program, NSF provides some of the most prestigious awards to early-career faculty. These awards are designed to support individuals who show promise in becoming academic role models in both education and research. Moreover, they aim to empower recipients to spearhead advances within their respective departments or organizations.
In parallel to advancing their research, Zhang and his team will
partner with UW’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Computing, Advanced Research Computing Center and Innovation Wyrkshop; Idaho National Laboratory; and other industry partners to conduct a series of fully integrated research, education, outreach and workforce development efforts along with the research.
“The proposed research will be seamlessly integrated with education and outreach activities through different levels of teaching, training and workshop activities across the UW community, the Rocky Mountain area and the nation,” Zhang says. “We aim to establish a pathway for training a diverse and sustained workforce with composites expertise to meet the state and nation’s needs in highperformance composites.”
Leveraging his adjunct faculty position in the School of Computing and the unique high-performance computing resources at UW, Zhang plans to enhance students’ computational modeling skills through course study and workshop training.
“Utilizing various resources and revenues made possible by the sole four-year higher education institution in Wyoming, we plan to increase awareness and interest in composites at an early age from diverse backgrounds through training programs and outreach events at different technique levels,” he says.
Zhang teaches both undergraduate and graduate-level courses and his research focuses on developing advanced computational tools to understand how materials respond and evolve during their life spans, from manufacturing to service and eventually failure, with applications across different industries. He establishes extensive collaborations with researchers from various universities, national laboratories and industries.
BY
To ensure a good seal, Zach Nelson uses Flex Seal on the inside of the plug inside the geothermal stock tank.
PHOTO
RYAN TEMPEL
By Ryan Luethje
Stock tanks are a crucial part of any cattle ranch, but many American ranchers encounter significant issues when these tanks freeze over in the winter. Dealing with frozen pipes and constantly having to break the ice for cattle become a perpetual headache. However, what if there was a solution to this freezing that harnessed Earth’s natural resources?
9H SmartRanch utilizes geothermal stock tanks.
Recently, 9H Research Foundation interns and University of Wyoming College of Engineering Physical Sciences electrical engineering junior Zach Nelson from Casper, Wyo., and mechanical engineering junior Ryan Tempel from Haxtum, Colo., supervised by Cody Humphrey of 9H SmartRanch and C&A Pet and Livestock Supply in Laramie, Wyo., produced just that type of solution. By utilizing Earth’s natural and sustainable heat, Nelson and Tempel created a geothermal stock tank, an approach that not only addresses the freezing of pipes and surface water but also ensures the well-being of livestock.
“What got me excited about this particular project was, when we were doing our preliminary research, seeing this ranch in Kansas that was using this kind of geothermal system to regulate the temperature of a greenhouse where they were growing citrus in January. That’s when it really took my imagination,” says Nelson. “Seeing what they were able to do with no external power and how much trouble we were going through here just to keep these tanks from freezing, it seemed like a perfect fit.”
Funded by the 9H Research Foundation, the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, UW’s College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources, the Wold Foundation and the 9H Ranch, the tank was created measuring 3 feet in diameter and 10 feet in length, with one end capped, and buried vertically to maximize exposure to geothermal heat. The geothermal system naturally circulates colder water down and warmer water up, keeping the water at a constant temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit. This solution not only provides much-needed relief to ranchers, but also exemplifies the potential of harnessing the Earth’s natural resources for agricultural applications.
According to Nelson and Tempel, the three main challenges encountered when building a geothermal stock tank are getting a durable seal, implementing low maintenance plumbing and ensuring livestock cannot fall into the culvert once filled with water.
“We were able to solve the durable seal challenge by pouring the culvert into a concrete slab and sealing it with
Flex Seal,” Nelson and Tempel explain. “In addition, once the water line enters the tank, a one-inch Rainbird quick coupler was used to attach the float valve, allowing for a simple twist if needed for the entire fitting to pop out and shut off the water. The last issue, which is protecting animals from falling into the culvert, was solved by pressing pipe into the seam between the culvert and tire and welding continuous fence — essentially, creating a cage around the top of the culvert.”
The estimated cost of building your own geothermal stock tank from scratch was just under $2,000.
“I think the impact this stock tank could have in the Wyoming area could be very large,” says Tempel. “Ranchers could save a lot of time in the winter by not having to break ice, and cattle won’t have to wait for ranchers to break ice to get a drink. It could also save lots of money in the long run when compared to stock tanks that use a heater and electricity to stop from freezing.”
To learn more, contact Tempel at (970) 520-2750, Nelson at (307) 462-1762 or Humphrey at (307) 399-0563.
BY
PHOTO
ZACH NELSON
Cody Humphrey (left) and Tanner Page, an employee of 9H Ranch, work on the welded metal grate that is installed around the opening of the geothermal stock tank buried in the ground, while atop the tire that is placed around the mouth for the cattle to drink from.
AN ARCTIC
ATSC researchers
study possible effects of cold air outbreaks on Arctic ice melt.
By Ron Podell
In the last decade or so, the Arctic ice sheet has been shrinking more every summer than in the historical record. And a particular type of cloud regime may be amplifying this warming rate.
For a period of a little more than six weeks, several faculty members in the University of Wyoming Department of Atmospheric Science and a cadre of scientists from around the world were able to study whether clouds during marine cold air outbreaks over open water in the Arctic are contributing to the acceleration of ice melting in that region of the world.
The UW contingent led by Bart Geerts, professor of atmospheric science; Jeff French, associate professor and department head of atmospheric science; and professor emeritus Jefferson Snider.
“The warming rate in the Arctic in the past few decades has been three to four times faster than the rate of global warming,” Geerts says. “And this, in turn, causes the seasonal ice sheet to melt faster such that, starting in the decade or two, the Arctic Sea is expected to be almost all ice-free every summer.
The NCAR/NSF C-130 aircraft touches down on the runway next to the Scandic hotel.
SPRINGTIME
“The main reason is the icealbedo feedback due to diminishing sea ice: When the ice is gone, more summertime solar radiation is absorbed by the open water, rather than being reflected by the ice,” Geerts continues. “But one of several other reasons is cloud feedback: There may be fewer low clouds in a warmer Arctic.”
The research expedition field campaign, dubbed CAESAR (Cold Air Outbreaks Experiment in the SubArctic Region), began Feb. 22 and concluded April 7. CAESAR has deployed the National Science Foundation (NSF)/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) C-130 aircraft — a converted military cargo plane — from its base in Kiruna in northern Sweden to the northern seas and the edge of the Arctic ice sheet.
The UW Department of Atmospheric Science has contributed several instruments being used aboard the C-130, which can reach the Arctic ice sheet on an eight- to nine-hour flight, Geerts says. These instruments include the Wyoming airborne radars and lidar, and several cloud and aerosol probes. Several instruments, including the radars and a novel Raman lidar that measures temperature and humidity, were built as part of the NSF Mid-Scale Research Infrastructure award, “The NextGeneration University of Wyoming King Air Research Aircraft,” to the department, and these instruments are being deployed for the first time in CAESAR to assist in studying cold air outbreaks.
The deployment of these UW instruments is supported by UW researchers in atmospheric science. These include Eric Beamesderfer, Coltin Grasmick, Natalie Kille and Anna Robertson, all associate research scientists; Adam Majewski, a postdoctoral research associate; and
FROM THE CLOUDS
Cold air outbreaks occur in the Arctic when cold air masses above the Arctic Ocean ice flow south over relatively warm water. During more intense cold air outbreaks, convective clouds may organize into “polar lows,” accompanied by strong winds, heavy
Zane Little, a master technician.
“All five scientists are supported, in large part, through the cooperative agreement with NSF to operate the King Air and instruments, and this field deployment is their first one in their current positions,” Geerts says. “There is much excitement in the air in Kiruna.”
snowfall and both dynamical and microphysical similarities to tropical hurricanes.
“These clouds are driven by surface heating; they are convective,” Geerts says of cold air outbreaks. “They start off the Arctic ice edge and become deeper with fetch (distance from the ice edge). Their appearance on satellite
UW Department of Atmospheric Science Associate Research Scientist Coltin Grasmick and Sarah Woods, an associate scientist III for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), monitor scientific instruments during a research flight of the NCAR/NSF C-130 during the CAESAR field campaign.
is quite characteristic. They are found near Japan, also, and off the East Coast of the U.S.
“The link with sea-ice melting is rather indirect. In general, there is a lot of heat exchange between the Arctic and the lower latitudes, which explains why the Arctic in winter is not nearly as cold as Antarctica in winter, which remains more insulated from warm-air intrusions,” Geerts continues. “This intense heat exchange is one reason for the Arctic amplification. We study the cold air coming out of the polar region — the cold air outbreaks. Other people have studied their counterpart, the warm-air intrusions into the Arctic.”
A LARGE CONTINGENT
Scientists from 11 institutions participated in the research. Besides UW, other key entities were the University of Miami; University of
The research team stands for a group photo with the NCAR/NSF C-130. Group members include from left to right: Bart Geerts, UW Department of Atmospheric Science professor; Yonggang Wang, UW alumnus and assistant professor of meteorology at State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego; Emma Weissburg, UW visiting scientist; Tim Juliano, UW alumnus and NCAR research scientist; Adam Majewski, UW Department of Atmospheric Science postdoc; Anna Robertson, UW Department of Atmospheric Science research scientist; John Cassano, UW alumnus and professor at CU Boulder; Jeff French, UW Department of Atmospheric Science department head and associate professor; Jeff Snider, UW Department of Atmospheric Science professor emeritus; Markus Petters, UW alumnus and professor at University of California, Riverside; Evan Newman, UW Department of Atmospheric Science graduate student; Zhien Wang, UW faculty alumnus and Professor at Stony Brook University.
UW Department of Atmospheric Science Professor Emeritus Jeff Snider (yellow vest) works with UW visiting scientist Emma Weissburg and Sunandan Mahant, a doctoral student at the University of California, Riverside, inside the NCAR/NSF C-130 during CAESAR.
Oklahoma; Stockholm University, Sweden; University of Oslo, Norway; and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Additionally, researchers from the University of ColoradoBoulder, Colorado State University, University of Michigan, Stony Brook University and SUNY Oswego are involved.
Paquita Zuidema, professor and chair of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Miami, was the principal investigator (PI) on the field campaign. Greg McFarquhar, a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, and Geerts, both co-PIs, were the other scientists on the leadership team.
From UW, additional participants included Evan Newman and Shane Martrich, both UW graduate students studying atmospheric science.
“I was specifically working with the Wyoming Cloud Radar and KaBand Profiling Radar to observe and measure reflectivity, vertical velocities and along-track wind,” says Newman, a first-year master’s student from Fleetwood, Pa. “I was responsible for analyzing this radar data to learn about the fine-scale structures of the cold air outbreak clouds, their temporal evolution and how they vary in space. We also want to know how upstream weather conditions can impact these cold air outbreak clouds downstream.”
While in Sweden, Newman looked forward to experiencing the Swedish culture and seeing the Aurora Borealis.
Martrich, a first-year master’s student from Macungie, Pa., did not
“The warming rate in the Arctic in the past few decades has been three to four times faster than the rate of global warming. And this, in turn, causes the seasonal ice sheet to melt faster such that, starting in the decade or two, the Arctic Sea is expected to be almost all ice-free every summer.” — Bart Geerts
make the trip to Sweden but instead had lab duties on campus. He remotely provided quality assurance through data collected in the field. Martrich says he then produced temporary processed data files for preliminary results before doing a deep dive at the end of the campaign and ensured that the processed data is sound.
“Although not physically in a lab setting, it can be thought of as doing lab/field work through the processing, calibrating and providing the quality assurance remotely from Wyoming rather than doing it in Sweden,” he says. “Furthermore, this work during the field campaign is imperative, as the aerodynamics around the instrument — while flying through clouds — can be disrupted through a few different processes, thus creating a ‘baseline drift’ and the need for quality control in finding when the data may become unusable.”
YEARS IN THE MAKING
Geerts has been working on readying this field campaign for over six years. In summer 2017, he convened a group
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Learn more about UW’s Atmospheric Science Graduate Program
of scientists to build momentum for a large campaign to study the marine cold air outbreak cloud regime. Two proposals — one called Cold air Outbreaks over the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE) to the Department of Energy for the deployment of an instrument suite on an island just off coastal northern Scandinavia, and the other for CAESAR, an airborne campaign — were submitted.
“The intent was simultaneous observations from the ground and the air. Our target winter was 2019-2020. COMBLE was funded immediately. CAESAR was declined twice and greenlighted the third time,” Geerts recalls. “By summer 2020, COMBLE was done, and the pandemic had broken out. Because of the pandemic and subsequent technical challenges with the C-130, the CAESAR campaign was delayed from early 2022 to early 2024.”
The cost to NSF for the C-130 deployment and field support in CAESAR is about $4 million, paid to NCAR. The aggregate cost of the science — three years of research grant funding — is about $5 million, paid to all participating universities. UW received about $1 million, Geerts says. Of that total, Geerts and French received $678,000; Snider $100,000; and $230,000 for the deployment of the UW instruments.
Department of Physics and Astronomy Receives Award for Graduating Students in Physics Teaching
The Department of Physics and Astronomy has received the 5+ Club award for graduating students in physics teaching during the 2022-23 academic year, placing UW among the top 1 percent of institutions nationwide.
The 5+ Club offers national recognition to Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) member institutions that graduate five or more physics teachers in a single academic year. Induction marks a significant contribution toward resolving the severe national shortage of physics teachers and indicates that the institution is a national leader in the production of teachers.
“We received a small PhysTEC grant in 2014 to help recruit more UW students to consider teaching physics at the high school level,” says Danny Dale, the Harry C. Vaughan Professor of Astronomy in the UW Department of Physics and Astronomy.
“As part of this effort, I worked with colleagues in the UW College of Education to develop and promote streamlined pathways for students interested in such a career.”
in 2020, the American Association for Employment in Education found “the need for physics teachers is greater than nearly any other subject area.” Data from both the American Physical Society’s Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics and the U.S. Department of Education’s Title II reports show that most institutions with secondary education programs prepared an average of zero physics teachers over the last three years.
The American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, Computing Research Association and Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership surveyed more than 6,000 current and recent U.S. STEM majors, finding that nearly half of the students in those fields have an interest in teaching, including half of physics majors.
According to Dale, the post-baccalaureate certification program has proven to be particularly popular.
“Students pursuing this 12-month program route can earn a graduate certificate in physics teaching — or any secondary science — as long as they already have earned an undergraduate degree in any STEM field,” Dale says. “This flexibility has been able to accommodate a variety of students who decide, partway through their time at UW, that they want to become a secondary science teacher but still want to finish their original degree program.”
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
According to an annual survey of school districts
According to PhysTEC, it “has helped colleges and universities transform their physics teacher education programs by providing funding, professional conferences, resources and other support. Many of these institutions are now preparing greater numbers of highly qualified teachers of physics and some have become national models.”
As of 2020, PhysTEC has built 67 physics teacher education programs.
“The state of Wyoming has a strong national reputation for supporting K-12 education,” Dale says. “It is important that UW play its role in providing well-qualified high school physics teachers for the state.”
Other institutions that received the award include Brigham Young University, Colorado School of Mines, Rutgers University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Minnesota and West Virginia University.
To learn more about this program’s mission and to view a full list of awardees, visit phystec.org.
PROFESSOR ARYANA RECEIVES FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR AWARD FOR ENERGY TRANSITION RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA
Saman Aryana, professor and Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Technologies, as well as head of the University of Wyoming’s Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to Australia. He will engage with the University of New South Wales, studying and exchanging ideas on topics related to energy transition.
“I feel privileged to have been afforded such an incredible opportunity to expand my work globally by developing strong ties and fostering collaborative relationships with Australian colleagues who have deep, complementary expertise,” Aryana says. “Australia and the U.S., especially the state of Wyoming, share significant similarities in the economic significance of their subsurface resources and agriculture sectors. Given its energy policy and the prominence of its mining and agriculture sectors, Australia presents an ideal location for building intentional collaborations focused on engineering the subsurface.”
Aryana is among 800 U.S. citizens who will conduct research or teach abroad for the 2024-25 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program. Fulbright Scholars engage
in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for future partnerships between institutions.
“I am thrilled to see Saman selected for this well-deserved opportunity and recognition. He has certainly earned it,” says Cameron Wright, Carrell Family Dean of UW’s College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. “To put this in more context, past Fulbright Scholars include 62 Nobel laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, and thousands of leaders and worldrenowned experts in academia and many other fields across the private, public and nonprofit sectors.”
Aryana joined the UW faculty in 2013, where he has contributed significant scholarship to his discipline and provided educational opportunities for students.
“Dr. Aryana’s recognition as a Fulbright Scholar brings honor to UW and contributes significantly to our reputation as a world-class research
university,” says Kevin Carman, UW’s provost and executive vice president.
The Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship program for international educational and cultural exchange, was established by Congress in 1946. The program offers passionate and accomplished students and scholars, in more than 160 countries, the opportunity to study, teach, conduct research, exchange ideas, contribute to mutual understanding and address shared international concerns.
Since its inception, the Fulbright Program has empowered more than 400,000 dedicated and accomplished students, scholars, artists, teachers and professionals from diverse backgrounds. Scholars have enhanced their skills and connections; gained invaluable international insights; returned home to share their experiences with their students and colleagues; and enriched their local communities with a wider perspective.
For more information about the Fulbright Scholar Program, visit www. cies.org.
MODELING THE FUTURE OF
A new modeling method is providing valuable insights to boost wind farms’ energy output.
Computational modeling is a critical planning and analysis tool for advancing wind energy technologies by providing valuable insights into the complex interdependence dynamics of wind turbines, atmosphere and the surrounding environments. These models help optimize the design and placement of wind turbines, predict energy output and assess environmental impacts. By simulating wind flow patterns and blade aerodynamics, engineers and researchers can identify the most efficient turbine configurations and locations, leading to higher energy yields and lower costs, facilitating the development of advanced control strategies that enhance the stability and performance of wind farms.
The University of Wyoming has been a leader in the field of computational fluid dynamics and its application to aerospace engineering and wind energy applications for
the past 20 years through faculty research efforts in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, primarily led by Emeritus Professor Dimitri Mavriplis, Associate Professor Michael Stoellinger and former Associate Professor Jay Sitaraman.
To carry on UW’s leadership in wind farm modeling and elevate the research to the next level, Andrew Kirby has rejoined UW as a research scientist in the new School of Computing. Kirby completed his doctoral degree under the advisement of Mavriplis in mechanical engineering in 2018. His research focuses on developing high-fidelity computational tools to study the complex aerodynamics of wind turbines and aircraft using supercomputers. During his graduate studies, he performed the highest fidelity wind farm simulation, a record that still stands today. Kirby’s goals are to reinvigorate UW’s research in understanding and governing the fundamental fluid dynamics of wind farms, including the formation of wind turbine wakes and their interaction with the atmosphere and terrain.
“One grand challenge in wind energy simulation concerns fluid-structure interactions and control,” Kirby says. “Unsteady air flow coming into a
wind turbine causes the blades and tower to bend, dramatically changing the aerodynamics — the airflow around these objects — and leading to a structural-response feedback loop.”
According to Kirby, there’s a need to accurately resolve these physics and then tackle the challenge of controlling the behavior passive devices called vortex generators.
“FACILITATING WIDESPREAD ADOPTION OF WIND ENERGY HINGES ON DEVELOPING A DEEP UNDERSTANDING AND A PREDICTIVE CAPABILITY THAT GOVERN THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE OF WIND PLANTS. — ANDREW KIRBY
“These local impacts also have utility-scale consequences, as downstream wind turbines feel the wakes from upstream turbines, causing reduced power generation,” Kirby says. “To capture these effects over disparate spatial and temporal scales, scientific software must make use of the nation’s
An illustration of the cross section of the wind turbine wake at multiple downstream locations measured by rotor diameters (D). The wake transitions to turbulence as it mixes with the surrounding atmosphere.
Wind turbine wake illustrated by wind speed deficit with higher wind speeds shown in cooler colors and lower wind speeds shown in warmer colors. Wind turbines extract energy from the surrounding winds, causing slower turbulent air to exit. This wake propagates downstream, impacting the energy production of wind turbines.
largest supercomputers.”
Kirby received a National Science Foundation grant worth $175,000 over two years for his project, titled “Dynamically Adaptive Unstructured Mesh Technologies for High-Order Multiscale Fluid Dynamics Simulations.’’ The grant started May 1 and ends April 30, 2025. The project focuses on modernizing Kirby’s software to leverage the U.S.’s largest exascale supercomputers — a computer that does a quintillion (1018) calculations each second — which employ graphical processing units (GPUs)
“THE INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT, INCLUDING COLLABORATIONS, COMPUTER TIME AND MENTORSHIP, GIVES ME A GREAT DRIVE TO SUCCEED. — ANDREW KIRBY
for most of their computing power. These GPUs require specialized software to take advantage of increased amounts of parallelism — the process of carrying out many calculations or processes simultaneously.
“For the past 10 or so years, our research group (Mavriplis’s) has been making great use of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center, including the Yellowstone, Cheyenne and Derecho supercomputers, for this wind energy research,’’ Kirby says. “Those computers relied primarily
on central processing units (CPUs). While they are easier to program, they cannot perform as many calculations as GPUs today. The best GPUs today can theoretically perform 40-80 times more computation than a CPU using the same amount of energy. But there’s a caveat — they are very challenging to program effectively. But they are well worth the effort.”
Once the software is working at scale, these grand challenges can finally be confronted — as well as getting answers to current problems much faster.
“The latter helps in the development, validation and verification of lower-fidelity parameterized models industry employs on desktop computing systems,” Kirby says. “Facilitating widespread adoption of wind energy hinges on developing a deep understanding and a predictive capability that govern the overall performance of wind plants.”
Research on wind energy at UW has a storied history, dating back to the 2008 inception of the Wind Energy Research Center. Kirby is effusive about being at UW and working with faculty and researchers across departments to tackle these grand challenge problems.
“The institutional support, including collaborations, computer time and mentorship, gives me a great drive to succeed,” Kirby says. “I hope my efforts, with collaborators at UW, government and industry, not only make an international impact, but also a local positive impact for Wyoming.”
Andrew Kirby stands in front of the Cheyenne Supercomputer at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center.
To learn more about our ser vices and how we connec t student s and alumni with employers , contac t us at C E A SC areer Ser vices@ uw yo .edu
The University of Wyoming College of Engineering and Physical Sciences Susan McCormack Center for Student Success Career Services O ce has changed my outlook on what is possible to do in the field of STEM as an undergrad. I feel like I have gained the skills necessary for higher-level internships, networking and navigating how to build a better future. Without this assistance I would never have tried to apply for any internships or participated in amazing activities such as the Denver Trek to the National Renewable Energy Lab. I now know is it feasible for freshmen to get opportunities that seem out of reach and I am confident I can apply what I have learned to continue my career as a physics major.
- Lizzie b. Physics ’28
*Received the SULI Internship for National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado*
By Ryan Luethje
The global study of wildlife populations is not just important; it’s essential for maintaining stable ecosystems and gaining insight into animal behaviors. With the advent of cutting-edge technologies such as drones, high-resolution cameras and sophisticated computer analysis software, this research has been taken to new heights.
Assistant Professor Ben Koger in the University of Wyoming School of Computing and the Department of Zoology and Physiology has spearheaded some of the most recent
advancements in wildlife research using imaging drones and novel computer vision pipelines to study groups of wildlife across the African continent, significantly bolstering efforts towards sustainable wildlife management.
“Drones, particularly when paired with computer vision techniques, provide ways of observing environments that are challenging or even impossible for humans,” says Koger. “Physically, for example, it’s much easier for a drone versus a human to hover 200 feet above a lake to observe a bunch of big salmon and a brown bear that might be hunting
them. While computationally, human observers, whether on foot or in a helicopter, struggle to reliably focus on more than a couple things at once. Maybe a trained observer can carefully observe the behavior of one or two animals, but it’s hard for a human to concentrate on and record the behavior of many animals and many landscape features at the same time.”
In Kasanka National Park (KNP) in central Zambia, Koger and his research team studied the largest strawcolored fruit bat in the world, which is notoriously hard to track because their communal populations can range over one million individuals.
The color dots correspond to the instantaneous speed of the individual sockeye salmon and brown bear behavior in Pedro Bay, Alaska, allowing Koger and his research team to efficiently enumerate the number of individual species migrating to these ecosystems and to study their detailed behaviors and interactions while there.
A Bird’s Eye View
How drone imagery and computer vision algorithms are flying high for conservation.
Drones, particularly when paired with computer vision techniques, provide ways of observing environments that are challenging or even impossible for humans.
— Ben Koger
“In the past, researchers have used cameras, radar and thermal detectors to attempt to accurately count the populations, but without computer automation, this task can become highly labor-intensive,” says Koger. “Additionally, as night falls and the bats become more active, conventional cameras lose their effectiveness due to poor footage quality, while the alternative of thermal cameras presents a significant expense.”
With all these issues, convolutional neural networks (CNNs), deep learning computer algorithms, are needed more than ever to help gather an accurate animal census.
“Ultimately, through the use of automated software and inexpensive cameras, my team and I were able to monitor the bats from multiple locations continuously,” says Koger. “This enabled us to gather detailed behavioral data, previously unattainable, and derive an accurate combined population estimate — a task beyond the capability of manual counts.”
In Kenya, Koger and his team continued this groundbreaking
Working with a team of researchers, Ben Koger put 10 GoPro cameras around the forest in Kasanka National Park in Zambia, where strawcolored fruit bats lived and recorded video each night as the bats left to forage. The team designed computer vision tools to automatically detect and track the bats to estimate the total population size.
research on Grevy’s zebra, an endangered species, utilizing drones and a sophisticated computer analysis software to provide a non-invasive and cost-effective means to study the animal’s behavior.
“Employing drones, our team was able to capture footage from directly above the animals, which our systems were then able to analyze every frame of the footage and generate bounding boxes for tracking purposes,” says Koger.
The team’s utilization of Structurefrom-Motion (SfM) software enabled it to create a 3D topographical model of the surrounding landscape, which was then combined with other data for more effective behavioral analysis and tracking.
“Overall, these effective methods allowed for the study and a more
Left: The movement trajectories of each individual Grevy’s zebra (white trails) in a herd and the environment they are moving through including detected animal trails in the landscape (yellow and green colors).
detailed understanding of spatially explicit social behavioral processes, dynamic collective processes and animal-environment interactions,” says Koger.
These two studies showcase the power of sophisticated computer analysis software, drones and other essential tools in unraveling deeper insights into the diverse species coexisting on our planet.
“In essence, this fresh data empowers us to enhance our support for endangered species and foster the development of a more sustainable ecosystem for the benefit of all inhabitants,” says Koger.
Next up, Koger and his team are working on projects based at Bristol Bay, Alaska, to help quantify sockeye salmon populations in the world’s largest wild salmon fishery to understand their migration and reproduction behavior.
In addition, Koger is in the early stages of building projects based in Wyoming using these types of approaches, including automated processing of images from camera traps to understand mule deer and bison migration, and using drone and satellite imagery to investigate methods for more efficient rangeland management.
“Using a mix of drones, high resolution satellites and ground-based cameras, I am exploring how we might be able to more efficiently monitor important animal populations in Wyoming,” says Kroger. “With these tools, we can both investigate the raw numbers of individuals while also thinking about how they interact with things like roads or various other kinds of development to better understand how we can help populations thrive into the future.”
Interested in learning more about Koger’s research? Visit kogerlab.com
Above: A herd of endangered Grevy’s zebras filmed from a drone at the Mpala Research Station in central Kenya. Using automated computer vision processing tools, Koger and his research team are able to not only detect the location and species of each individual animal, but also detect specific key points on each one to quantify the animal’s posture and related behavior, such as the direction each individual is facing or head movement.
SUSTAINABILITY IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY
Q&A with UW alumnus and chief operating officer of Beacon Offshore Energy, Joe Leimkuhler, on how he sees energy addition in the oil and gas industry.
Q: CAN YOU BRIEFLY DESCRIBE YOUR BACKGROUND IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY AND HOW IT HAS SHAPED YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON ENERGY?
I graduated from the University of Montana with a double major degree in forestry and geology in 1981, and the oilfield in Wyoming was in a boom cycle at the time, so I ended up working as a “mud engineer” in the Overthrust Belt in Evanston, Wyo., and I loved it. I was responsible for keeping the drilling fluid or “mud” within the specified parameter to enable the hole to be drilled. Mud engineers work hard at the start and end of each shift or tour, so I had
After earning his undergraduate degree in geology and forestry from the University of Montana in 1981, Joseph “Joe” Leimkuhler went to work as a “mud engineer” on drilling rigs in Wyoming. It was there that he met Jack Evers, the former head of petroleum engineering at the University of Wyoming, when Evers brought students for a tour of a rig in the Snowy Range. Leimkuhler was going to head to law school, but Evers had other ideas. Evers encouraged Leimkuhler to complete the undergraduate engineering coursework needed for graduate school admission — which he did via correspondence while continuing to work on rigs all over the state. Leimkuhler, his wife, Stephanie, and their two children then moved to Laramie, where Leimkuhler completed his master’s degree in petroleum engineering in 1987. Leimkuhler now reflects on how that UW education allowed him to hit the ground running in the oil and gas industry and shares his insights on what he sees next on the industry’s horizon.
plenty of time to observe and learn all the other aspects of drilling oil and gas wells. In 1983, the industry had shifted into a bust mode, and on my last hitch drilling a well outside Laramie in the Medicine Bow range, Jack Evers brought his drilling fluids class to the rig. After giving the students a tour of how the system worked on the rig, Jack asked if I had a degree. I told him, “yes, forestry and geology” and he said, “that’ll do.” “Do for what?” I asked. “You’re an engineer, and I want you in my graduate program in petroleum engineering at UW,” he replied. That was the start of a
long-term relationship with Jack and UW. A relationship that continues to this day.
Fast forward a few years to 1987, where I was able to go through the recruitment process when Shell Oil was at UW, which led me to New Orleans working as an offshore drilling engineer. My first job was to work as the offshore optimization engineer on a drillship working in 7,200 feet of water, a world record at the time, which was interesting to go from living at 7220 feet above sea level to working wells in 7200 feet of water. Over the next 25 years at Shell, I eventually led
the organization in drilling all the deepwater wells for Shell in the U.S.
In 2012, a new opportunity came up where I took on the role of VP of drilling and well operations for LLOG in Covington, La.
LLOG eventually became the largest privately held oil producer in the U.S. and the fourth largest offshore producer. In 2019, I was contacted by my former CEO from LLOG about another opportunity that could also be operated out of Louisiana — Beacon Offshore Energy — where I would be asked to recruit and develop a team capable of drilling and producing oil and gas from the U.S. deepwater. In the last five years Beacon has grown and is currently operating two deepwater rigs, where we have seven subsea fields flowing, four deepwater projects in development and an exploration program as well. Shenandoah is the flagship development of the company and is the second “20K” project to be developed in the world, right behind Chevron’s Anchor development. “20K” means the pressures are so
high the equipment must be rated to handle 20,000 pounds per square inch or psi — quite a bit higher than the 35 psi in your tires. The rig we are using is the Deepwater Atlas, one of only two rigs in world that can execute 20K wells.
Q: WHAT INTRIGUES YOU THE MOST ABOUT THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY?
The innovation and drive to improve. The technology we use in deepwater is the equivalent of a “moon shot.” We can directionally drill a well in 10,000 feet of water to a location at a total depth of 35,000 feet and hit a target within 100 feet that is up to 2 miles horizontally from the location on the seafloor. We drill through up to 20,000 feet of pure salt and manage the highest pressures in the world. Our data systems allow us to use pressure wave technology to transmit information to down hole sensors and computers in the drilling assembly just above the drill bit. We “see” what we are drilling through virtually real time. We can steer the system as needed to our targets and can also take
pressure measurements and even get samples of the oil and gas into the drilling assembly (for later retrieval on the surface) — all of these actions without pulling the drilling assembly out of the hole.
Q: WHAT COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OR MYTHS ARE FACING THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY TODAY?
The perception that our industry is unsafe. Safety data captured by the U.S. government shows that injury incident rates are quite low. From an accident standpoint, it is more dangerous to be a real estate agent than work on an offshore rig. Second perception is that we are a “dirty industry.” Given the improvements in well control and containment capabilities, we actually have relatively miniscule volumes of oil that hit the water.
Q: WHAT DO YOU FORESEE AS THE FUTURE OF THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY IN THE NEXT DECADE?
The reality that lays out the need for energy addition more so than energy transition strongly indicates
The Shenandoah subsea field in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico is the second industry offshore oilfield requiring equipment rated to 20,000 PSI. Water depth is 5,900 feet, and total well depth is up to 32,000 feet.
a continued future and careers in oil and gas. Those companies that can produce oil and gas with the lowest carbon footprint and can efficiently capture carbon if needed will be the winners. When you add in the carbon footprint of importing oil and gas (especially via tankers) it becomes clear that domestic oil and gas — especially from the U.S. deepwater — is the lowest carbon oil on the planet.
Q: GIVEN YOUR EXPERTISE IN OIL AND GAS, HOW DO YOU VIEW THE TRANSITION TO GREEN ENERGY? IS IT POSSIBLE? DO YOU SEE IT AS AN INEVITABLE SHIFT, OR DO YOU BELIEVE THERE’S A MIDDLE GROUND WHERE BOTH CAN COEXIST?
I do not view the transition to “green energy” as inevitable. What is inevitable is that the U.S. and other nations are going to try. The technology is there; however, is society ready to pay the cost of the shift? From a supply chain perspective, the amount of materials required from batteries to cement to composite materials is immense and dominated by countries outside the
U.S. So, is there a middle ground? Absolutely, yes. Regardless of these challenges there is also the reality of the continued demand for oil and gas, which will be there over the next 25 years. The U.S. EIA and the International IEA both project that the demand for oil and gas in 2050 will be as great or even greater than today. This is because much of the world lives in energy poverty and desires a standard of living close to what we in the U.S. and Western Europe enjoy. The reality is despite the desire to transition away from oil and gas to renewables, any realistic projection (that accounts for actual projects that are feasible versus aspirational) shows we need energy addition more than energy transition.
Q: CONSIDERING THE INFRASTRUCTURE BUILT AROUND OIL AND GAS, HOW DOES THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY CONTINUE TO INNOVATE AND CREATE?
Industry — especially offshore — does a great job of fully utilizing the existing infrastructure of pipelines and platforms. And the tools (rigs,
The Deepwater Atlas, the world’s first 20K rig in service, drilling offshore at the Shenandoah prospect in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
etc.) that we use to bring on new production are more efficient than ever. Offshore in the Gulf of Mexico 17 platforms in deepwater out of a current total of 2,000, produce 75 percent of the offshore oil in the U.S. Amazing productivity and a great indicator why with just 20 rigs running, offshore production is at a record high, more than when there were 200 rigs total (shelf and deepwater) in the Gulf of Mexico.
Q: WHAT MAKES YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY?
On a holistic view, the need for oil and gas will continue, and it does not have to be at the risk of the environment. Exxon-Mobil is doing amazing work on carbon capture and storage (CCS). Exxon claims, and I believe them, that they can produce carbon negative oil. The engineering skills to drill these wells and inject the CO₂ are virtually identical to the engineering to drill and construct oil and gas wells; the point is, the skills of a petroleum engineer are transferable to the CCS world!
Q: WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR STUDENTS LOOKING FOR A CAREER IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY?
Go for it. Energy poverty in much of the world is a real issue, and as a petroleum engineer you can have a major role in safely and responsibly providing that energy and improving lives.
We regret to announce the passing of the following alumni.
Ethan Allen
BSEE ’44 – Yucca Valley, CA
Paul Bercich
BSCE ’71 – Lone Tree, CO
Dean Boundy
BS ’59 Geology – Midland, TX
Robert Davis
BSEE ’63 – San Jose, CA
Gustav Dinga
PH.D. ’62 Chemistry – Minneapolis, MN
Edward Fisher
BSCE ’84 – Post Falls, ID
George Garrett
BS ’65 General Engineering – Sherborn, MA
Jerry Harmon
MS ’65 Physics / PH.D. ’68 Physics – Pocatello, ID
Bruce Hooper
BS ’72 Statistics – Laramie, WY
Rodney Kirlin
BSEE ’62 / MS ’63 Electrical – Bellingham, WA
John Loutas
BSEE ’66 – Casper, WY
Kim Porter
BS ’79 Geology – Montrose, CO
Ronald Stahla
BSEE ’63 / MS ’65 Electrical Engineering – Lexington, NE
Craig Stump
BSME ’59 – Lailua Kona, HI
Carol Wang
BSEE ’61 – Leesburg, FL
Paul Wicker
MS ’67 Civil Engineering – Newport News, VA
Our greatest sympathy is extended to the families of these valued friends.
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RECOGNIZING OUR RECENTLY PROMOTED FACULTY
Bradley Carr
Department of Geology and Geophysics Senior Research Scientist
TeYu Chien
Department of Physics and Astronomy Professor
Nathan Clements
Department of Mathematics and Statistics Senior Lecturer
Robert Erikson
CEPS Dean’s O ce Senior Lecturer
Christina Knox
Department of Mathematics and Statistics Associate Lecturer
Shane Murphy
Department of Atmospheric Science Professor
Jifa Tian
Department of Physics and Astronomy Associate Professor
Ping Zhong
Department of Mathematics and Statistics Associate Professor
