The MGE Department is active in research in the general areas of geomechanics, mine production and information technology, health and safety, sustainable development, mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, and surface and subsurface characterization.

UA Strengths

The University of Arizona is a member of the Association of American Universities which includes the top 36 public and 26 private universities in the U.S. Members include Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT, Berkeley, Michigan, and Penn State. We are one of 59 Research I Universities (designated by the Carnegie Foundation) in the US which is the top-rating based on quantity of research and degrees. The UA is one of the top-ranked research university in the US with not only with strong mining engineering and economic geology programs but also top-ranked colleges of public health, medicine, law, business, social sciences, science, and engineering.

Interdiscipinary Research

The University is noted for its large graduate interdisciplinary degree programs.  In 2007, 14 GIDPs produced 11% of all Ph.D. degrees at the University of Arizona. Currently, 661 faculty from 12 colleges and 108 departments are actively involved in GIDPs at the University of Arizona.

Sustainability

The University of Arizona is unusually well positioned in the broad areas of environmental research and sustainability. 

• We have more than 150 active environmental faculty in more than 45 academic units, across at least 9 colleges
• We are world leaders in desert and dry environments and in water research. A focus on the diverse populations of the southwest, especially American Indian and Hispanic issues is another distinctive opportunity for UA environmental scholars.
• UA has expertise in most of the essential environmental areas: e.g., water, ecosystems, climate, hydrometeorology, earth science, biogeochemistry, law, architecture, policy, economics, agriculture, engineering, decision-support, informatics, and environmental health; also, there is growing interest in environmental entrepreneurship and expertise across the social sciences in the human relationship to nature

MGE faculty members and the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources collaborate with many disciplines across campus.

Technology Transfer from Faculty Research

Our faculty are actively engaged in transfering results from their laboratories to the private sector through start up companies and licensing.  Three companies MGE faculty helped found are:

Split Engineering, LLC

Solar Technology Research Corp. (STRC)

NOAH, LLC