Since arriving at Missouri S&T in fall 2018, Taghi Sherizadeh has focused on the ground control challenges facing the mining industry, both on the surface and deep underground. His work so far has involved numerical analysis of rock slopes and coal ribs, and he is developing a new monitoring method to detect ground movement in underground mines.

Sherizadeh, assistant professor of mining engineering at Missouri S&T, has received several research grants from the Alpha Foundation, NIOSH and other funding agencies. He recently received the Academic Career Development grant from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME). He is excited about the grant and believes it will help him with his research, specifically in the area of ground control.

“I am really honored to receive this award,” says Sherizadeh. “I extend my deepest gratitude to SME for providing me with this opportunity to advance my early mining career. This grant will help me to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. mining industry and the Missouri S&T mining engineering program.”

The SME career grant program is designed to help rebuild the mining engineering faculty pipeline by providing financial support to tenure-track faculty to boost their research, publications and professional services. The grant is worth $100,000 annually for up to three years.

Sherizadeh will use the grant to support a collaborative and mentorship-based research environment for graduate and undergraduate students at Missouri S&T. He will also use grant funding to build capacity and upgrade equipment in the geomechanics research lab.

“It is well known that good mining research starts from the ground up, literally,” says Sherizadeh. “Our team will travel to various mines in the U.S. to learn more about the geomechanics challenges facing their operations and to find out how we can use and build upon our expertise to help them.”