This fall, Miner athletics is sporting a different image. The design highlights the university name and gives it an athletic feel, while paying tribute to our roots as the University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy.

Designed with a prominent miner’s pickaxe, it features a stylized shadow to illustrate action, as if it is in motion.

Be assured our mascot, Joe Miner, isn’t going anywhere. Joe remains a strong image for athletics, as well as student life and alumni, at Missouri S&T.

At 6 a.m., when most other students are still asleep, Miner swimmers are already in the pool. Their hard work in practice has paid off in a big way: Missouri S&T posted a national runner-up finish in March. Since 1997, the Miners have finished among the top 10 at the NCAA Division II Championships 11 times.

When Missouri S&T swimming coach Doug Grooms came to campus in 1993 he saw the need for quality swim instruction for kids in the community. He also knew his swimmers were the ideal teachers. “We teach kids starting at the age of 4 and the age ranges up to around 12,” Grooms says.

When Tyrone Smith, Hist’07, first joined the track program at Missouri S&T, his best long jump fell short of what it would take to qualify for the Olympics by more than four feet. Since then, Smith has been jumping farther and farther. He won three All-America awards and multiple long jump championships in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. And this year Smith was so good that he qualified for the Olympics.

Young athletes are often resilient enough to make full recoveries from devastating injuries. Such is the case for Missouri S&T pole vaulter Jordan Henry, who injured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) while playing basketball in high school. During his recovery, Henry’s track coach suggested he focus on pole vaulting.

Maybe you’ve seen the cartoon on somebody’s office door or wall. A large bird is trying to swallow a small frog. Half of the frog’s body is dangling from the bird’s beak. The frog’s arms are outstretched as far as possible, and it’s making a determined effort to choke the bird. The caption, from the frog’s perspective, reads: “Don’t ever give up.”

The Lady Miners are serious about women’s sports and they’re determined to pass along their knowledge to tomorrow’s stars. Women in volleyball, soccer, softball and basketball all take time out of their seasons to host youth camps for area girls. To the women’s basketball team, these are not just sports lessons, they’re life lessons.

Each year, just prior to the NFL draft, serious people with notebooks and stopwatches gather at various venues for “Pro Days.” Ashton Gronewold was determined to impress these people with amazing vertical jumps, broad jumps and 40-yard dashes. Surely some of the scouts were paying attention...This Gronewold guy has skills...But, still, he’s just not big enough, right?

Countless Missouri S&T alumni say they are who they are today because of the lessons they learned through college sports. Many still feel a personal connection to their coaches, who shared as many life lessons as they did tactical ones. Missouri S&T Magazine asked a few of our alumni to share their thoughts on four campus legends. 

Plans to extensively renovate the Student Recreation Center at Missouri S&T have been bolstered by a $1 million gift from the Anheuser-Busch Foundation, a $250,000 gift from Roger Dorf, ME’65, and his wife, Sandy, and student fees.

Sen. Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate, conducted a town hall meeting at Missouri S&T on Wednesday, July 30. Obama spoke to a crowd of more than 1,500 people in the Student Recreation Center about energy, the economy and foreign affairs, then opened the floor to questions from the audience. As with any outside organization, the Obama campaign paid for the use of the facility. 

What do religion, witchcraft and New York City have in common? Plenty, if you ask Amanda Kamps, a junior in history at Missouri S&T.

The old statue of St. Patrick that used to be in the library is gone. It has been shipped to New York, where it will be used as a mold for the creation of a new, bronzed statue.

Long summer trips often take a toll on road warriors. This is especially true when the road trip in question is a 2,400-mile journey through two countries over 10 days — while going an average speed of about 45 mph.

A team of Missouri S&T graduate students - separated geographically but united via the Internet - matched wits and skills with seven larger teams from the United States and Canada to win the 2nd International HEC Montreal ERP Simulation Game in June.

In his spring commencement address May 17 at Missouri S&T, William Wulf, former president of the National Academy of Engineering, told almost 600 graduating seniors that they have a responsibility to speak out on technical issues, perhaps even run for public office.

• Samuel D. Conzone, MS CerE’96, PhD CerE’99
• David A. Dillard, EMch’76, MS EMch’78
• John W. Edwards, CE’72
• Gary L. Foutch, ChE’76, MS ChE’77, PhD ChE’80
• Thomas F. Hughes, EMgt’91
• Alan S. Kornacki, GGph’74
• Jeffrey L. Theerman, CE’80
• Christopher A. Thomason, ME’85
• Benjamin P. Winter, MetE’80
• Michael E. Woessner, CE’76

This year, 32 Missouri S&T alumni and former faculty were inducted into one of Missouri S&T’s eight academies. Academy membership recognizes a career of distinction and invites members to share their wisdom, influence and resources with Missouri S&T faculty and students. Academy members make up fewer than 1 percent of the alumni base. Mechanical and aerospace engineering held its induction ceremony in October. Engineering management held ceremonies in October and April. The remaining academies held their induction ceremonies in April.

Douglas MacArthur was involved in some of the most important military and foreign policy issues of the last century, but a Missouri S&T historian says he may be better remembered for his theatrics than his military prowess. In a new book by Russell D. Buhite, the controversial general is re-examined.

One of the most successful student design teams at Missouri S&T in 2008 was the Formula Car Team. This team, which designs and manufactures a miniature Indy-style racing car each year, finished second out of 40 teams at Virginia International Speedway (April 23-26), eighth out of more than 100 teams at Michigan International Speedway (May 15-17), and second out of 80 teams at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. ( June 25-28).

Creighton University prof named psychology chair
 
Nancy J. Stone, former professor of psychology at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., took over as chair of psychology at Missouri S&T on July 1. Stone focuses her research on group dynamics, specifically team work behaviors; environmental design, studying how things like color or windows can impact performance, motivation, mood or satisfaction; student learning and training; and the interview process, studying the interview as an assessment of organizational fit.

A student team from Missouri S&T has three years to design the best eco-friendly car in North America.

A five-student team from Missouri S&T took second place in the national finals of the Metcalf and Eddy Academic Design Contest held in New York in May. This is the first time Missouri S&T has participated in the competition.

Back in the early 1930s, when the men believed to be Missouri S&T’s oldest living brothers - Irvin and Elmer Spotte - played football for the MSM Miners, Jackling Field stood in what today is the middle of campus. Located just to the left of Jackling Gymnasium, which was torn down in the 1960s to make way for Curtis Laws Wilson Library, the field was the site of the 4-4 season of 1933.

As a guard and tackle on the Miner football team, Bob Keiser, EE’65, learned firsthand the importance of teamwork. The leadership lessons he gained from athletics stayed with him throughout his career, taking him all the way from the football field to the boardroom.

Pairing quantum dots with a protein transporter, three students from Missouri S&T spent their summer in Taiwan trying to develop a more effective and efficient drug delivery method.

In one corner of a huge civil engineering laboratory on campus, Ronaldo Luna watches a machine shake silt from the Mississippi River until it liquefies.

With 12 inland ports and increasing biofuel production, Missouri can increase its use and capacity of freight traffic on the state’s waterways.

Every year, more than 30 billion water bottles are added to America’s landfills, creating a mountainous environmental problem. But if Missouri S&T research is successful, the plastic bottles of the future could literally disappear within four months of being discarded.

Missouri S&T has a new research toy - a focused ion beam (FIB) scanning electron microscope that is capable of shrinking images of objects a million times and then etching them on the head of a pin.

A new treatment in development at Missouri S&T could improve the quality of life for more than 36 million people currently infected with HIV. One-third of adults with HIV and half of children with HIV develop HIV-1 associated dementia, which causes behavioral and cognitive dysfunctions.

Although former Vice President Al Gore got most of the credit in the media for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, the award was shared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). A team of Missouri S&T researchers were integral to the IPCC’s work and in April 2008 the group received official recognition of their “substantial contributions” to the award by the IPCC.