After an historic $10 million challenge grant from Tim ’80 and Bernadette Marquez in 2005, nearly 200 alumni, friends and corporate partners donated to create one of Mines’ newest buildings, Marquez Hall. The 64,000-square-foot building houses the Petroleum Engineering Department, computer labs, research labs where corporate partners and Mines students partner to solve energy challenges, and much-needed classroom space for use by the entire campus.

“The alumni are appreciative of the education they got here. Their companies love our graduates, they hire them,” said Dr. Ramona Graves, the department head of the petroleum engineering department. “Because of this we’ve been able to do some really great things.”

With new state-of-the-art facilities, Graves said the department can continue that trajectory of success. One of those facilities is the 3D visualization lab, a large room with theater-style seating where students wear 3D glasses and can virtually fly through petroleum reservoirs.

 

“Petroleum engineers work one mile, five miles, maybe even ten miles into the ground. We can’t see where we work,” said Graves. “When students can actually plan a well, step back and see where it’s actually going to go, see how it’s actually going to intersect the geology, that’s huge.”