News and Events

The United States Department of Energy has awarded the University of Utah $1.5 million to study the potential of transforming coal-associated mineral resources in Utah and western Colorado’s Uinta Basin region into high-value metal, mineral and non-fuel carbon-based products. Coal has historically been used for combustion and energy generation, but may additionally host critical minerals and rare earth elements that have been overlooked and are valuable non-fuel products in our modern society.

Nothing is impossible. Perhaps no one exemplifies this timeless adage more than Rahul Kumar, the son of a migrant worker from Bihar, who went on to become a Gold Medalist from IIT Roorkee and is now on his way to the USA to do his PhD at the University of Utah. The road starting from the humblest of beginnings to becoming one of India’s brightest young scholars has not been easy. Rahul has faced financial, medical and countless social hardships to be where he is today. What is most admirable is that even after achieving so much in such a short time, he hasn’t lost his humility. Corporate Citizen had a heartfelt conversation with Rahul, where he opened up about his inspirational journey to the top, the lessons he learnt on the way, and his plans to give back to society. This is the inspiring story of how a migrant labourer’s son went from abject poverty to becoming an IIT Gold Medalist and a research fellow at the University of Utah, USA.

It is with deep sadness we share with you the news of the sudden passing away of our beloved and distinguished colleague and friend, Professor Raj K. Rajamani in the late evening of Thursday, August 12, 2021. Raj, as he was affectionately called, was an outstanding intellectual mind. He was a highly skilled scientist, an excellent engineer, a dedicated philanthropist, and above all, one of the nicest, compassionate, thoughtful, and humble persons you would ever meet.

On a cloudless night, how much of the sky can you see? For Utahns and tourists who seek out the state’s designated “dark sky” locations, quite a lot. “It never ceases to amaze me, when I’m down in Canyonlands or Capitol Reef, when you can see the Milky Way and you really see just the incredible majesty of space and the sky,” said Lindsie Smith, director of the Salt Lake County-operated Clark Planetarium.

Thanks to a $526,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, University of Utah atmospheric scientists Jay Mace and Gannet Hallar will study data from the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, as part of ongoing efforts to understand how ocean processes impact clouds in that relatively untouched part of the planet.