CoorsTek Fellows Featured in Mines Winter 2023 Magazine

Gabriel Plummer PhD ’22 is a postdoc at the NASA Ames Research Center. His PhD at Mines was funded with a CoorsTek Fellowship in Advanced Ceramics, which not only paid his tuition, salary, health insurance and stipend, but also gave him freedom to pursue his own bold ideas.

“External funding makes the life of a graduate student and their advisor much easier—more time to spend on research, less on getting funding,” Plummer said.

Graduate fellowships—competitive, merit-based awards—attract and support master’s and PhD students who can make a substantial impact in their field.

Some awards, like the CoorsTek Fellowship, provide complete support over multiple years. Others, like the Thirst for Knowledge Fellowship, fund students’ short-term research projects, bridge funding gaps or address other pressing student financial needs.

COORSTEK FELLOWSHIP FUNDS ACADEMICS AND FREEDOM

In 2014, CoorsTek and the Coors family established the CoorsTek Fellowship in Advanced Ceramics and funded the CoorsTek Center for Applied Science building with a $27 million gift.

So far, 15 PhD students have received the award. Beyond financial support, they have a liberating amount of scientific freedom and make industry connections—an advantage that sets the program apart.

“The Fellows program has allowed CoorsTek to interact with an extraordinary group of researchers through a platform that encourages a very diverse applicant pool,” said Randel Mercer, CoorsTek’s chief technology officer. “Their projects have covered a broad range of topics in materials science. All have yielded great learning experiences through failures, challenges and discoveries.

“This investment goes well beyond funding research; it is about building career pathways for future generations of engineers and scientists,” he said.

Reimanis said industry-funded fellowships are particularly powerful.

“They help us develop and deepen relationships and ultimately create jobs for our graduates who are doing research in the forefront of the field,” he said. “If companies need PhDs who have the skills and ability to do research in key growth areas, funding a fellowship helps make sure students have these qualities.”