The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech or NMT), formerly New Mexico School of Mines, is a

public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

Socorro, New Mexico Socorro (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, sə-KOR-oh'') is a city in Socorro County, New Mexico, Socorro County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is in the Middle Rio Grande Valley AVA, Rio Grande Valley at an elevation of . At the 2020 ...

, United States. It offers over 30 Bachelor of Science degrees in

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

, the

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

, and

technical communication Technical communication (or tech comm) is communication of technical subject matter such as engineering, science, or technology content. The largest part of it tends to be technical writing, though importantly it often requires aspects of visual ...

, as well as graduate degrees at the masters and doctoral levels.Carey, John A. (February 2003) "New Mexico Tech One of State's Best Assets" ''New Mexico Business Journal'' 27:2 pp48-49 NMT regularly ranks high as a top public college in the West (''U.S. News & World Report''), public universities for percentage of bachelor's students who earn a doctorate (National Science Foundation), and as one the best Hispanic-serving universities in America (Niche.com).

History

With 987 degree-seeking undergraduate students and 486 degree-seeking graduate students as of fall 2024, New Mexico Tech is a relatively small university focused on science and engineering. It was founded by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature in 1889 as the New Mexico School of Mines, with the goal of boosting the territorial economy by teaching mining specialties at the college level. During the 1930s, petroleum engineering and technology also became an important field of study at the institute. In 1946, New Mexico Tech began offering graduate degrees. The institute adopted its current name in 1951, but the change was not legally effective until 1960, through an amendment of the New Mexico State Constitution, Art. XII, Section 11. It also houses numerous research centers spanning diverse fields such as hydrology, astrophysics, explosives engineering, atmospheric physics, and cybersecurity.

Research and teaching

New Mexico Tech's well-known areas of research and teaching include

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the ...

atmospheric physics Within the atmospheric sciences, atmospheric physics is the application of physics to the study of the atmosphere. Atmospheric physicists attempt to model Earth's atmosphere and the atmospheres of the other planets using fluid flow equations, rad ...

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

information security Information security is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorized or inappropriate access to data ...

Earth Science Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

, energetic

materials engineering Materials science is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries. The intellectual origi ...

, and petroleum recovery. In 2003, with funds from the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...

, New Mexico Tech purchased the town of Playas, New Mexico, and the surrounding to develop the Playas Training and Research Center, operated by the school's EMRTC, which provides training and research for the university's

first responder A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency. First responders typically include Law enforcement, law enforcement officers (co ...

counterterrorism Counterterrorism (alternatively spelled: counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and Intelligence agency, intelligence ...

, and Air Force programs.

Affiliated science and engineering centers

* New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources * Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center * Institute for Complex Additive Systems Analysis * The EarthScope Primary Instrument Center (EPIC, formerly the IRIS PASSCAL Instrument Center) * Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research * Magdalena Ridge Observatory * National Cave and Karst Research Institute *

National Radio Astronomy Observatory The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a federally funded research and development center of the United States National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. for the purpose of radi ...

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

facility operated by Associated Universities, Inc. located on the New Mexico Tech campus) * Petroleum Recovery Research Center * Playas Training and Research Center

Student life

NMT hosts an annual Performing Arts Series that is free to students, and, along with the broader Socorro community, city, and county, supports a great number of special events each year. New Mexico Tech is located approximately an hour south of

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), also known as ABQ, Burque, the Duke City, and in the past 'the Q', is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Bernal ...

in a region of high deserts to subalpine mountains that offers considerable outdoor recreation opportunities, including rock climbing, road and mountain biking, a triathlon, and hiking opportunities. New Mexico Tech also hosts numerous active student clubs, a Part 15 AM radio station, and a biweekly student newspaper, ''Paydirt''. The campus includes an 18-hole championship golf course. The NMT student esports and rugby club teams recently won national championships. NMT takes pride in extensive community outreach, hosting popular events like a robotics demolition derby for 6th-12th graders and a weeklong summer science, technology, engineering, and mathematics program for high school students. The campus population has historically been predominantly male, but it has moved increasingly towards a balance between the sexes. The gender distribution at New Mexico Tech is 68% male and 32% female.

Presidents

Source

Notable alumni

Conrad Hilton Conrad Nicholson Hilton (December 25, 1887 – January 3, 1979) was an American hotel magnate and politician who founded the Hilton Hotels chain. From 1912 to 1916, Hilton was a Republican representative in the first New Mexico Legislature ...

(born 1887) — American hotelier and the founder of the

Hilton Hotels Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton Worldwide. The original company was founded by Conrad Hi ...

chain * Larry Soderblom (born 1944) — American geophysicist with the

Astrogeology Planetary geology, alternatively known as astrogeology or exogeology, is a planetary science discipline concerned with the geology of celestial bodies such as planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, and meteorites. Although the geo- prefix t ...

Science Center at the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ), known locally as Flag, is the county seat of Coconino County, Arizona, in the southwestern United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 76,831. Flagstaff is the principal city of the Coconino Cou ...

, where he has served as chief of the Branch of Astrogeology * Don Tripp (born 1946) — American politician and a Republican member of the

New Mexico House of Representatives The New Mexico House of Representatives () is the lower house of the New Mexico State Legislature. There are 70 members of the House. Each member represents roughly 25,980 residents of New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the South ...

representing District 49 since January 1999 * Ed Fries — American video game programmer who led the

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

team that created the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

console * Fred Baker (born 1951) — American engineer, specialized in developing

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

protocols for the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

* Ibrahim Mohammad Bahr al-Ulloum (born 1954) — Iraqi Minister of Oil from May 2005 to December 2005, while he was a member of the Islamic Virtue Party * Terry Wallace (born 1954) — director of

Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development Laboratory, laboratories of the United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, United States Department of Energy ...

* Lukas Lundin (born 1958) — Swedish-Canadian businessman, billionaire * Jeffrey A. Lockwood (born 1960) — author,

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

, and

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming, United States. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, ...

professor of Natural Sciences and Humanities * Axel Scherer — professor,

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

, inventor of the

Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser The vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL ) is a type of semiconductor laser diode with laser beam emission perpendicular from the top surface, contrary to conventional edge-emitting semiconductor lasers (also called ''in-plane'' lasers ...

(VCSEL) * Jason Harper — American politician, Republican member of the New Mexico House of Representatives representing District 57 since January 15, 2013 * Pauline Irene Nguene — petroleum engineer and Cameroon Minister of Social Affairs

Popular culture

A number of television shows have focused on New Mexico Tech faculty, students, and research.

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...

's ''Man vs. Cartoon'' features attempts by Tech's Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center to re-create contraptions and situations found in

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of animated cartoons, first appearing in 1949 in the theatrical short '' Fast and Furry-ous''. In each film, the cunning, d ...

cartoons.

MythBusters ''MythBusters'' is a science entertainment television series created by Peter Rees (producer), Peter Rees and produced by Beyond International in Australia. The series premiered on the Discovery Channel on January 23, 2003. It was broadcast in ...

National Geographic Explorer ''National Geographic Explorer'' (or simply ''Explorer'') is an American documentary television series that originally premiered on Nickelodeon on April 7, 1985, after having been produced as a less costly and intensive alternative to PBS's '' ...

, BBC Horizon and

Nova A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

have also featured Tech in various episodes. Another TV show featuring Tech's Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center, '' Blow Up U'', began filming in the spring of 2009.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Mexico Institute Of Mining And Technology Schools of mines in the United States Technological universities in the United States Public universities and colleges in New Mexico Buildings and structures in Socorro County, New Mexico Education in Socorro County, New Mexico 1889 establishments in New Mexico Territory Universities and colleges established in 1889 Summer Science Program Socorro, New Mexico