Master’s Student in Geology Awarded Wyckoff Memorial Award

SOCORRO, N.M. February 9, 2011 – New Mexico Tech graduate student Maureen Moore-Roth is the 2011 recipient of the Barkley Wyckoff Fellowship, an award for a graduate in economic geology.

Maureen Moore-Roth

A graduate of West Chester University in Pennsylvania, Moore-Roth earned a bachelor’s in geology and a bachelor’s of education in Earth and Space Science. After graduation from West Chester, she worked for two environmental engineering firms – URS Corp and O’Brien & Gere. She started as a staff geologist and was was promoted to geologist within a year.

“I wouldn’t be here at Tech without this fellowship,” Moore-Roth said. “And since I got here, I’ve had some great opportunities. I attended the Society of Economic Geologists student dedicated field course, which allowed us to connect with professionals in industry and I also was able to attend the SEG national conference in Keystone, Colo.”

At the conference, Moore-Roth met representatives of Newmont Mining, one of the nation’s largest copper companies. Through that introduction, she first landed a full-time summer internship for the Denver office. The company then offered her the opportunity to conduct her thesis research at Copper Basin in Battle Mountain, Nev. She will now split time between the Denver office and the exploration site in Nevada. Moore-Roth plans on focusing her study on the occurrence, distribution, and hydrometallurgical characteristics of the minerals present in the copper enrichment profile at Copper Basin, NV.

“They offered me full-time summer internship and a thesis project, none of which I would have had without the Barkley Wyckoff Memorial Fellowship,” she said.

Moore-Roth also received a scholarship from the SEG. Her advisor Dr. Andrew Campbell said the Wyckoff Memorial is one funding method the department uses to bolster its graduate funding. Thanks to generous alumni and supporters, Tech academic departments can continue to recruit excellent new students, he said.

“This type of fellowship allows us to attract top quality graduate students who want to study ore deposits,” Campbell said.

Barkley Wyckoff graduated from New Mexico Tech with a master’s in geology in 1969. He died tragically in a small plane crash in 1980. His parents and a classmate, Dr. Gary Lowell, spearheaded the effort to launch the scholarship fund in 1981. The geology faculty periodically selects a graduate student to receive the award, based on merit, need and an interest in economic geology.

– NMT –

By Thomas Guengerich/New Mexico Tech