Drs. Lana Alagha and Guang Xu have been appointed Robert H. Quenon Associate Professors of Mining Engineering at Missouri S&T.  

Alagha has been a member of the Missouri S&T faculty since 2012, when she was hired as an assistant professor and the first full-time female mining engineering faculty member in the history of the department. 

In 2018, she was promoted to associate professor. Her Quenon appointment began Jan. 1. 

Alagha is on the executive council of the S&T-led Critical Minerals and Materials for Advanced Energy Tech Hub and is a member of the organizing committee for S&T’s Resilient Supply of Critical Minerals national workshop. Some of her research areas include mineral processing, critical minerals, surface chemistry, rare earth metals and separation science.  
 
She earned a Ph.D. and master’s degree in materials chemistry and nanotechnology from the University of Texas at Dallas, and her bachelor’s degree in chemistry is from the University of Bethlehem in Palestine. She was also a postdoctoral fellow in the department of chemical and materials engineering at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.  
 
Xu joined the Missouri S&T faculty in 2019 as an associate professor. Before coming to Missouri S&T, he was a faculty member at Curtin University in Australia for six years.  

His appointment will be official Sept. 1 at the completion of his S&T tenure process.  
 
An analysis published by Stanford University lists Xu as among the top 2% of researchers cited in his field in 2022. Some of his research areas include mine ventilation, particulate matter monitoring and control, fire mitigation and safety for electric vehicle batteries, and computational fluid dynamics.  
 
Xu completed a Ph.D. in mining engineering at Virginia Tech, where he also served as a postdoctoral associate. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mining engineering from China University of Mining and Technology.  
 
The Quenon professorships are named after Robert H. Quenon, who served as president and board chair of Peabody Holding Co. in St. Louis. In 1979, Quenon was awarded an honorary doctor of engineering degree from S&T.  
 
For more information about Missouri S&T’s mining engineering programs, visit mee.mst.edu.  

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.