Miner Stories

A view of planet Earth from space

Four months away from Earth

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Sandra “Sandy” Magnus has been part of three space flights and spent more than four months in space during her career at NASA. She joined NASA in 1996 and spent 11 days in space in 2002. During that trip to the International Space Station, she operated Space Shuttle Atlantis’ robotic arm. Magnus earned a bachelor’s…

The ‘steam locomotive’ of printers

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When Philip Chen joined Xerox Corp. in 1967, only big companies could afford printers and scanners. Now retired and with several patents to his name, Chen developed the Xenon flash lamp printer, which he considers the “steam locomotive” of printers. He also designed an optical disc drive for the Library of Congress to store its…

S&T’s first building: the Rolla Building

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Missouri S&T’s first building still stands and is home to our mathematics and statistics department. Built for Rolla’s high school, the City of Rolla originally owned the building and leased half of it to the University of Missouri Board of Curators for the soon-to-be university. Construction was completed just five days before the university opened…

Going nuclear

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Missouri S&T is home to the state’s first nuclear reactor. Operational since 1961 and one of only three nuclear reactors in Missouri, the S&T reactor is used for research, onsite tours, education, including distance courses for universities that have no reactor, and practical training. S&T nuclear engineering students can obtain their operator’s license by operating…

Endurance was her middle name

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The first woman to earn a degree from S&T, Eva Endurance Hirdler Greene, class of 1911, received the general science degree – even though she had completed the coursework to be a mining engineer. Her peers recognized her accomplishment, granting her status as a Knight of St. Patrick, but the faculty refused. She went on…

From banker to ‘Bachelor’

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Aaron Buerge, a 1997 mechanical engineering graduate and president of the First National Bank in Springfield, Missouri, was the focus of season two of “The Bachelor” in 2002. The reality television show followed Buerge as he tried to woo various eligible bachelorettes. After several weeks on reality television, he finally returned to the real world…

Bringing water to those in need

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As co-founder of Water.org, Gary White has helped empower more than 29 million people worldwide with access to safe water and sanitation. A civil engineer with a bachelor’s degree (1985) and a master’s degree (1987) from S&T, he founded WaterPartners in 1990. In 2009, he merged the organization with actor Matt Damon’s non-profit, H2O Africa,…

Year after year, the ‘Best Ever’

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Since George Menefee first donned a bishop’s hat and robe and rode a rail handcar into Rolla on March 17, 1908, St. Pat’s has been the single tradition most identified with Missouri S&T. The annual celebration occurs every March during the week of St. Patrick’s Day, who students of Menefee’s time dubbed the Patron Saint…

Leading Peru’s higher education

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After earning a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from S&T in 1980, Mariana Rodriguez returned to her native Peru to become a leader in the field of higher education. She helped found two universities and two technical institutes in the country. She first founded Cibertec, a three-year technical degree institute. In 1994, Rodriguez and partners…

Laying a foundation

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The Hasselmann Alumni House wouldn’t exist without the involvement of  Matt Coco, a 1966  civil engineering graduate – even the Kathleen and Matteo Coco Great Room is named partly in his honor. The Miner Alumni Association named the room in recognition of Coco’s extraordinary service on the largest project in association history. He spent more…