Dr. Samuel Frimpong will become chair of UMR’s mining and nuclear department as of July 1. Frimpong replaces his colleague Dr. Larry Grayson, who has served as chair of the department since November of 2000. Grayson, an expert in mine safety, remains a professor of mining engineering at UMR.                           

Frimpong came to UMR in 2004, when he was named the Robert H. Quenon Chair of Mining Engineering. Previously, Frimpong was a professor of mining engineering and director of the Center for Advanced Minerals and Energy Research at the University of Alberta in Canada.         

Frimpong studied mining engineering at the University of Science and Technology School of Mines in Ghana, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1985 and a post-graduate diploma in 1986. He received a master’s degree in mining engineering from the University of Zambia in 1988 and a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta in 1992.         

Frimpong’s research interests include surface mining, oil sands extraction, machine-formation interactions, machinery health and longevity, risk and safety engineering, bulk material transport and operations research.