Dr. Tibor G. Rozgonyi – Engineer, FIEAust, CPEng

FIEAust, CPEng has received a BS degree in mathematics (physics minor), and BE, MS and Doctorate degrees in mining engineering in his native country, Hungary. He has 4 years of mining industrial experience in hard rock (iron ore) mining and coal underground mining. He has served in different administrative and faculty capacities at his Alma Mater, The University of Miskolc, and from the mid-1970 he was instrumental in establishing the Mining Engineering education and research at the University of Tripoli, Libya. In late 1970, he moved to New Mexico Tech as an Associate Professor and in 1981 he moved, as a professor, to Texas A & M University (TAMU), Petroleum Engineering Department, where he taught underground mine design, mine development, mineral processing and many other mining engineering subjects and later reservoir rock properties, subsurface engineering, reservoir fluid properties and directional drilling. At the Civil Engineering Department at TAMU, he also taught many civil engineering courses such as soil mechanics, shallow foundation, construction dewatering, tunnelling, underground construction and surveying. Concurrently, he was invited to the University of Texas at Austin as a visiting professor, to teach graduate courses in ocean mining and mineral processing. At Texas A&M, he was the Director of the Coal and Mineral Research Laboratory. During his years at Texas A&M University, he lead a large research program in the fields of rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering, mineral processing, mine design and ore reserve estimation. He was appointed by the Governor of Texas to work on the project on Superconductive Super Collider as an expert on tunnelling, bulk material handling and ventilation. He carried out extensive industrial work and consultancy on quality control of mine-mouth coal-fired power plants (TMPA) for maintaining constant flame temperature; static and dynamic loads on large diameter pipelines on the ocean floor; stability of oil platform in medium to deep water; appointed by the Governor of Texas to the design team for the tunnel and related structures for the SSC; large scale laboratory testing of manganese nodules and polymetallic sulfide deposit mining at the division of Ocean Engineering at TAMU; and many others. From 1990 to 1995 he served as Dean of Engineering at the University of Wollongong, Australia, where he was instrumental in revitalizing the engineering education and research programs. New research institutes and centers (CRC) were developed such as, Steel Making and processing; Electronic and Super Conducting Materials Research Center, Joining And Welding CRC, and many others. He served as Dean of the Total Quality Management Program as well. As Dean of Engineering, he directed research and carried out consultancy for mining, manufacturing and consulting firms, as well as for BHP at Port Kembla. Some of these activities were on FE analysis of the base plate of shields in soft floor operations; conceptual design of a short face automated shearer for narrow coal seams; and application of microwave-plasma for material processing and treatment; just to mention a few. In recognition of his professional accomplishments, he was elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering in 1995. In 1995 he returned to the United States as Head and Professor of the Mining Engineering Department at the Colorado School of Mines. As Head of the Mining Engineering Department, he is responsible for the associated units such as the Edgar Experimental Mine, Earth Mechanics Research Institute and the Western Mining Resource Center. He has been instrumental in broadening the program by combining the traditional mining engineering degree with the new offering of the earth systems engineering degree at the graduate level. He has also widened the education and research areas of the department into sustainable engineering in the mining industry, mineral processing, industrial minerals, and underground construction and tunnelling.