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A-Z Index

Consulting Scientists

New Mexico Teachers: A scientist from New Mexico Tech, working at the cutting edge of research in his or her field, will come to your classroom and update you and your students on the latest discoveries!

These professors are available to you at NO COST. Just browse through this catalog, pick talks that interest you, and contact the professor directly. All we ask is that you limit your requests to two visits per year. We also suggest
that you make the most of the visits by inviting other classes.

If you have any additional questions, please contact the Admission Office at New Mexico Tech at admission@admin.nmt.edu or 1-800-428-TECH (8324).

Biology

Professor Tom Kieft
Contact Information: 835-5321 or tkieft@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Slide Projector and Screen

“Life in the Deep Biosphere”
The biosphere has now been found to extend far below the Earth’s surface, to depths of at least three kilometers at some sites. Microbes in deep environment represent a large proportion of the Earth’s total biomass; they carry out diverse biogeochemical reactions, often under extreme environmental conditions; and they may be useful analogs for studying the possibility of life on other planets.

Professor Kevin Kirk
Contact Information: 835-5820 or klkirk@nmt.edu
Target audience: High School or Community College
Equipment Needed: Blackboard and chalk, or computer projector and screen

"Eat less, live longer?"
Feeding many species of animals less food makes them live longer. This talk will be about how and why eating less food slows the rate of aging. I will cover both physiology and evolutionary biology.

Professor Snezna Rogelj
Contact Information: 835-5608 or snezna@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen

“Ethical Issues in BioTechnology”
We, the humans, are an evolutionary product. Ethics may, or may not, be an intrinsic evolutionary product of human nature, but it is here now, an intrinsic part of human nature. Biotechnology is our own creation and thus becoming an irreversible aspect of evolution. Advances in biotechnology are posing complex ethical dilemmas and we have to define – or find – effective ethical approaches to integrating biotech into our lives.

Chemistry

Professor Tanja Pietrass
Contact Information: 835-5586 or tanja@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School, Community College
Equipment Needed: Computer projector and screen. Projector can be provided, if necessary.

"Buckyballs and Nanotubes"
We will discuss the discovery, synthesis, characterization and application of recently discovered allotropes of carbon: buckminster fullerenes and carbon nanotubes.

Professor Larry Werbelow
Contact Information: 835-5518 or werbelow@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School (Juniors and Seniors)
Equipment Needed: Slide and Overhead Projectors and Screen

“Novel States of Matter”
Bizarre features of superfluids, superconductors, Bose-Einstein condensates, optical matter, fractal matter, leptonic matter, antimatter, and other novel forms of matter will be discussed.

“In Your Wildest Dreams!”
So, what is time? What is mass? What happens when scientists explore a world "colder" than absolute zero or hotter than the infinite? What is reality?!!! These are just some of the provocative questions we'll explore. Recent developments in teleportation, temperature inversion, and time reversal will be discussed.

“The Origins of the Names of the Chemical Elements”
The reasons scientists coined a specific name for an element are recounted.

Computer Science

Professor Subhasish Mazumdar
Contact Information: 835-5288 or mazumdar@cs.nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen

“Managing Information: What Can Be Hard about That?”
Presentation will discuss the problem of information management focusing on the need for proper design, integrity, and security. Also, the challenges posed by some recent technological developments will be discussed.

Professor Hamdy S. Soliman
Contact Information: 835-5170 or hss@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: VCR, Monitor, Overhead Projector, and Screen

“Introduction to Computer Security”
My areas of interest are computer and wireless security; neural networks and modern applications in image processing; and computer architecture and languages. My lecture will focus on network security problems, especially in the wireless domain; and existing and future solutions."

Professor Andrew H. Sung
Contact Information: 835-5949 or sung@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: VCR and Monitor

“Supercomputers and Artificial Intelligence”
Short lecture and video presentation of recent advances in supercomputing and AI technologies.

Earth and Environmental Science

Professor Richard Aster
Contact Information: 835-5924 or aster@ees.nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School and Middle School
Equipment Needed: Projection Screen

“Why Do Earthquakes Exist?”
An overview of global plate tectonics and its geological manifestations, with an emphasis on earthquakes around the world, including New Mexico.

Professor Robert Bowman
Contact Information: 835-5992 or bowman@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School and Middle School
Equipment Needed: Blackboard, Chalk, and Table

“Pollutant Movement and Groundwater Contamination”
A simple laboratory demonstration is used to illustrate the movement of hazardous chemicals from the soil surface to groundwater. A discussion of pollutant types, sources, and risks is developed around the demonstration.

Professor Andrew Campbell
Contact Information: 835-5327 or campbell@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Slide Projector and Screen

“Minerals”
Presentation will show many slides of minerals to discuss their physical properties, structure, and chemical variation. The significance of minerals in geologic studies and their industrial uses will be examined.

Professor Bruce Harrison
Contact Information: 835-5864 or bruce@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Slide Projector and Screen

“What Is the Use of Dirt?: The Soils Around Us”
This presentation will discuss the non-traditional uses of soil, climate record, and age determination, with examples from the local area.

Professor Jan Hendrickx
Contact Information: 835-5892 or hendrick@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Slide Projector and Screen

“The Importance of Vadose Zone Hydrology”
Vadose zone hydrology deals with movement of water and contaminants from the soil surface to the groundwater. Several case studies of these transport phenomena will be presented.

Professor David W. Love
Contact Information: 835-5146 or dave@gis.nmt.edu
Target Audience: Middle School
Equipment Needed: Table, Overhead Projector and Screen, Slide Projector and Screen, VCR

“Earthquakes and Earthquake Safety in New Mexico”
Relating earthquakes and faults to the geology of New Mexico and the preparation of students and teachers to deal with earthquake hazards.

Professor Virginia T. McLemore
Contact Information: 835-5521 or ginger@gis.nmt.edu
Target Audience: Middle School and High School
Equipment Needed: Slide Overhead Projector and Screen

“Use of Minerals in New Mexico”
You would not have electricity, drive a car, live in a house, or eat without minerals. New Mexico has many mineral resources which are essential to our lives.

Professor Peter Mozley
Contact Information: 835-5311 or mozley@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Slide Projector and Screen

“Environmental Geology”
A discussion of geologic aspects of environmental problems.

Professor David Norman
Contact Information: 835-5404 or dnorman@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Slide Projector and Screen

“Diamonds Are a Geologist’s Best Find”
How diamonds are formed, the scientific mystery about their occurrence, prospecting for diamonds, and details about a 1993 diamond discovery in Ghana.

Professor Patricia Jackson Paul
Contact Information: (505) 262-4702 or patty@gis.nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen, Table, Sink, or Access to a Water Source

“Introduction to Hydrogeology - Understanding Where Our Water Comes From”
In this presentation an aquifer model is brought in to demonstrate the basics of ground water mechanics. Students learn the physical properties that influence groundwater flow as well as some basic hydrologic terms. Other topics discussed are what make up an aquifer, the different types of aquifers, the hydrologic cycle, contaminate flow and its influence on ground water quality, and the aquifer system in the Albuquerque Basin.

Target Audience: Middle School
Equipment Needed: Five Tables

“Introduction to Mineral Identification”
This hands-on presentation introduces students to the basics of mineral identification through mineral displays and a quiz that they work on in teams of four or five students. The concepts we go over are the identification of a mineral, the physical properties used to identify minerals, and finally how mineralogy ties into rock type.

Electrical Engineering

Professor William Rison
Contact Information: 835-5486 or rison@ee.nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Slide and Overhead Projectors and Screen

“Triggered Lightning”
Discussion of the physics of lightning, lightning rods, and how to artificially trigger lightning.

Environmental Engineering

Professor Clint Richardson
Contact Information: 835-5467 or h20doc@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen

“Water Treatment: The Science behind Quenching Our Thirst”
Application of chemistry, physics, and, yes, even biology to produce a safe, palatable glass of drinking water for just pennies a day.

“Hazardous Waste Site Management: Our Intellectual Capital Is Thin but Gaining Weight”
A most controversial topic facing our society is the remediation of uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Presently, EPA estimates there are 25,000 such sites. The controversy enshrouding this issue lies in defining technically and/or economically justifiable target clean-up levels. How clean is clean?

“Bioenvironmental Engineering: The Wonderful World of the Microbe”
Application of organisms, biological systems, and biological processes can be a low-cost, highly effective treatment for detoxifying or destroying polluting chemicals with little or no consequential harm to the environment.

Humanities

Professor Rafael Lara-Martinez
Contact Information: 835-5204 or soter@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Slide Projector, Screen, and Audio-cassette Player

“Latin American Cultural Diversity”
An introduction to Latin American cultural diversity through the visual arts, music, and/or poetry. Using examples from 20th century history of painting, music, and/or poetry, a discussion of the different cultural regions of Latin America: European, Mestizo, Native, Black, etc., will be held. Presented in English or Spanish.

Management

Professor Peter Anselmo
Contact Information: 835-5438 or anselmo@jupiter.nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen

“Quantitative Techniques in Business Decision Making”
Examples, focused on problems and solutions, of mathematical techniques for solving investment, resource allocation, and other business problems are presented.

Professor Leyla A. Sedillo
Contact Information: 835-5495 or lsedillo@admin.nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen

“Accounting As A Career”
The career choices available as financial or management accountants.

Materials Engineering

Professor Paul Fuierer
Contact Information: 835-5497 or fuierer@nmt.edu
Target Audiences: High School
Equipment Needed: VCR, Slide Projector, and Screen

“High-Tech, Electronic Ceramics”
Just as ancient societies relied on ceramic materials for their daily activities, so too does our modern society. But the range, complexity and functionality of these ceramics have increased tremendously. Examples of such ceramics and their application will be described.

Professor Deidre A. Hirschfeld
Contact Information: 835-5129 or hirsch@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen

“Careers in Engineering”
This presentation is a discussion of the different engineering disciplines, career options, and the differences between engineering and science. "Unwritten" tips for success as an undergraduate engineering student are also discussed.

Target Audience: Elementary, Middle, and High Schools
Equipment Needed: Table

“Materials Engineering”. . . I've Never Heard of It. What is It?”
Very few people know what materials engineering is and what materials engineers do. This presentation examines the major classes of materials (polymers, ceramics, metals, and composites) and how the structure of materials affects their properties through demonstrations and "hands-on" activities.

Target Audience: Middle and High School
Equipment Needed: Table and VCR

“Ceramics-From Ancient Art to Future Technology”
Ceramics are important in our everyday lives from kitchen dishes to sensors in our cars. The broad science of ceramics and applications over the centuries are described through lecture and demonstrations.

Professor O. T. Inal
Contact Information: 835-5519 or inal@nmt.edu
Target Audiences: High School
Equipment Needed: Slide Projector and Screen

“Energy and Environment”
There is no clean form of energy. This covers topics from solar to nuclear energy with examples of their amounts, advantages, and the waste they create. The theme centers around “DON’T BE FUELISH!”

“Explosive Metal and Ceramic Working”
Explosives afford consolidation of powders or welding of dissimilar materials in a microsecond regime and without the production of extraneous phase formation that is a detriment to conventional powder processing and/or welding procedures. Explosives processing is quite economical in that there is no need for expensive equipment, and the explosives themselves are quite cheap.

“Damage to Metals through Irradiation (Shock Loading Laser Damage, Fast Neutron and High-Energy Proton Exposure)”
Energetic particles/metal surface interaction is detailed with examples at the atomic level. Material response to irradiation and processing that benefits, or is damaged by it, will be detailed.

“Intermetallics”
Intermetallics are strong, corrosion and oxidation resistant, and light. They also exhibit an anomalous behavior in mechanical properties in that their yield strength increases with increased temperatures; a behavior very much in contrast to behavior observed in other metals (or alloys). Despite all these enhanced properties, they are brittle at low temperatures, and this in turn makes them of little use.

Mathematics

Professor Brian Borchers
Contact Information: 835-5813 or borchers@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School (Advanced Math Students)
Equipment Needed: Blackboard and Chalk, or Overhead Projector and Screen

“The Traveling Salesman’s Problem”
A traveling salesman needs to stop in each of ten towns. What is the shortest route which passes through all ten towns? This problem is extremely hard to solve, but it has many practical applications. This talk is an introduction to the TSP, its applications, and its computational complexity.

Professor Anwar Hossain
Contact Information: 835-5135 or hossain@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector, Screen, and Blackboard

“Possibility and Probability: Working with Uncertain Numbers”
A phenomenon whose outcome is uncertain is an experiment of chance. A method for it should take into account all possible outcomes. Therefore, Probability = number of favorable outcomes/total number of outcomes.

“Applications of Statistics”
To give a critical attitude towards applications of statistical techniques, along with an appreciation of their utility.

Professor William Stone
Contact Information: 835-5786 or wdstone@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Chalkboard, Whiteboard, or Overhead

“Mathematics of Sickle-Cell Anemia“
Using basic genetics, a model of the passing on of sickle-cell anemia can be constructed. Analysis shows why sickle-cell persists in the African population.

“Chaos: A Mathematical Point of View”
An introduction to some of the mathematical ideas behind the concept of chaos. Lots of pictures and not too much algebra!

“Fractals”
What is a fractal? How do we get one? Why do we want one? Lots of pictures, and some surprising results.

Professor Larry Werbelow
Contact Information: 835-5518 or werbelow@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School (Juniors and Seniors)
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen

“The Mathematics of Symmetry"
Group theory is not just an esoteric branch of mathematics, it is an invaluable tool in scientific theory. Using some very simple ideas, it will be shown how chemists use group theory to understand the atomic and molecular world and physicists use it to unravel the fundamental forces and various conservation laws.

Mineral Engineering

Professor William X. Chávez, Jr..
Contact Information: 835-5317 or wxchavez@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School and Middle School
Equipment Needed: LCD projector

“The Significance of Mineral Resources: A Worldwide Perspective”
Supply and demand for mineral resources dominates world politics, our standard of living, and the environmental quality of our lives. This presentation shows where mineral resources come from on a worldwide basis, including photographs from places as diverse as the Gobi Desert, the Iberian Peninsula, the Andes Mountains, and our western United States. We discuss why mineral resources are important,and why we cannot live well without a constant (and expensive!) source of mineral raw materials.

“Natural Resources and Mining: People and Perspectives”
Where does copper come from? How do we obtain gold and silver? Does any kind of sand make good glass? Isn’t mining bad for the environment? A presentation showing various aspects of mining and the sources of some common-yet very important-mineral resources is given, emphasizing the necessity of having an abundant supply of mineral resources and a mining industry, yet acknowledging the need for a healthy environment and the responsibilities of industry to keep environmental impact to a minimum. Photographs show the benefits . . . and problems . . . associated with our society’s demand for cheap minerals and cheap energy. How long can we continue to mine our mineral wealth . . . will it last forever?

“Geologic Hazards: The Role of Geological Engineering in Public Safety”
Earthquakes, volcanism, landslides, collapsing soils, and related geologic phenomena each pose specific hazards to people, in terms of our livelihood, our environment, and our economic status. This talk discusses geologic hazards, from the spectacular (such as the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake near San Francisco) to the less obvious (such as collapsing soils in the City of Albuquerque!). An historical view of how geologic dangers have shaped history (from Biblical, to practical, and even changing ancient civilizations) will be presented to familiarize students with how our changing Earth’s surface influences our lives.

“Mining and Environment: Are They Compatible?”
Slide demonstration showing importance and problems associated with mining and utilization of mineral resources.

Professor Navid Mojtabai
Contact Information: 835-5836 or mojtabai@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: VCR (VHS)/TV, Overhead Projector, and Screen

“Blasting Operations and Ground Stability in Mining”
Importance and challenges of ground stability and control. Role of mining engineer. Design of blasting rounds, etc.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering

Professor Robert E. Bretz
Contact Information: 835-5436 or bretz@prism.nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen

“Fuels for Civilization”
Petroleum-derived fuels will be used for transportation, electricity generation, and home heating for everyone.

Professor Ron Broadhead
Contact Information: 835-5202 or ron@gis.nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Table, Slide Projector and Screen

“Have You Ever Wondered Where Oil and Natural Gas Come From?”
Discusses how oil and natural gas originate within the Earth; where these useful commodities are found; and how they are found.

Professor Thomas W. Engler
Contact Information: 835-5813 or engler@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen, Table

“From Dinosaurs to Gas in Your Cars”
This presentation describes the role of petroleum engineers from discovery of oil and gas miles beneath the Earth’s surface to the gasoline you use to drive your car.

Physics

Professor Larry Werbelow
Contact Information: 835-5518 or werbelow@nmt.edu
Target Audience: High School (Juniors and Seniors)
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Screen

“The Physical Vacuum”
A simple introduction to perhaps the most mysterious state of nature. Indeed, new theories of the vacuum may unify the forces of nature and explain the origins of the universe.

“The Quantum Universe”
Accessible introduction to the most important scientific developments of the 20th century. Both practicalities (e.g. the quantum computer and the tunneling microscope) and paradoxes (e.g. the quantum Zeno effect and action-at-a-distance) are described.

Psychology

Professor Mark Samuels
Contact Information: 835-5868 or mark@nmt.edu
Target Audience: Middle and High School
Equipment Needed: Overhead Projector and Table

“Developmental Changes in Conceptions of Mind and the World”
How is it that we come to understand our minds and the world in the way we do?