Planning I/UCRC Colorado School of Mines: Center for Advanced Subsurface Earth Resource Models

先进地下地球资源模型产学研合作研究中心是科罗拉多矿业学院和弗吉尼亚理工大学之间的一个合作项目，致力于通过建立产学研合作伙伴关系来推进勘探/采矿业部门，该合作伙伴关系进行竞争前研究和劳动力发展计划，有利于产学研双方。矿物和金属是现代技术型社会的基础。满足国家和全球对地球资源的需求是未来面临的巨大挑战。该中心将开发一种综合方法来定位、描述和可视化矿藏和其他地球资源，以迎接这一重大挑战。该中心将获得该奖项提供的资金，以支持学术界和工业界之间的规划会议。该中心的目标是开发新技术，以增加勘探成功的机会，降低勘探失败的成本，并推进采矿作业，这将促进社会经济繁荣，并有助于减少采矿对环境的影响。劳动力发展作为中心活动的重要组成部分，将包括学生（研究生、本科生和当地社区学院）和行业员工参与研究活动和培训机会。该中心将加强和促进在地球物理、地球化学、矿物学、计算科学和统计学方面的跨学科发现。采矿与现代社会向可持续发展的未来过渡有着千丝万缕的联系，研究的重点是增加勘探成功的机会，降低勘探失败的成本，这提供了切实的社会成果和效益。高级地下地球资源模型中心的目标和长期愿景是，通过该奖项的规划会议，可以针对矿床三维地下地质模型开发中的研究挑战，特别是这些模型集成了各种地球科学数据，为决策提供信息，并将地质风险降至最低。预计将有四个研究重点：(1)开发新的地球物理和地球化学仪器、分析和解释方法，以增强岩石性质的表征；(2)对不同空间分辨率和分布的地质、岩石物理和地球物理数据类型进行整合、标化和反演，以识别和表征地下地球资源；(3)开发信息方法的价值，以减少与决策相关的风险；(4)计算成像和可视化，以及图形化和探索性数据分析解决方案和可视化工具的开发。实现这一广阔的愿景需要经济地质学家、地球物理学家、统计学家和计算数学家的合作。科罗拉多矿业学院与弗吉尼亚理工大学的合作为领先的三维全球地下地球资源建模提供了基础。科罗拉多矿业学院组建了一个跨学科的研究团队，专长于矿物和岩石化学和物理性质、经济地质学、采矿工程、空间和时空地质统计学、不确定性量化、资源勘探中的重力和电磁方法、反演建模和高性能计算。这些专业补充了弗吉尼亚理工大学在逆理论、地震学和计算成像方面的核心竞争力。该中心的活动将改变地球科学数据在勘探和采矿行业的使用方式，从最初的勘探阶段开始，一直到矿山关闭和环境修复。在这方面，规划会议的目标是将勘探和采矿业部门以及科罗拉多矿业学院和弗吉尼亚理工学院的教师团队聚集在一起，确定共同的研究议程，并探讨行业对中心的承诺。由于中心的成功取决于长期的既得利益和行业合作伙伴的参与，规划会议将侧重于倾听公司的需求，并共同制定研究和商业计划，以确定中心的愿景。

The Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Advanced Subsurface Earth Resource Models is a collaborative effort between Colorado School of Mines and Virginia Tech that is focused on advancing the exploration/mining industry sector through the establishment of a cooperative industry-university-NSF partnership that conducts pre-competitive research and workforce development programs of benefit to both industry and academia. Minerals and metals are at the foundation of modern technology-based societies. Meeting national and global demands for earth resources represents a grand challenge for the future. The Center, for which this award provides funds to support a planning meeting between academia and industry, will develop an integrated approach to locating, characterizing, and visualizing mineral deposits and other earth resources to meet this grand challenge. The Center's objectives in developing novel technologies for increasing the chances of exploration success, reducing the cost of exploration failure, and advancing mining operations, will promote socio-economic prosperity and help in reducing the impact of mining on the environment. Workforce development, as an essential component of Center activities, will include student (graduate, undergraduate, and local community college) and industry employee participation in research activities and training opportunities. The Center will strengthen and promote cross-disciplinary discoveries, in geophysics, geochemistry, mineralogy, computational science, and statistics.Mining is inextricably linked to modern society's transition to a sustainable future, and research focused on increasing the chances of exploration success and reducing the cost of exploration failure provides tangible societal outcomes and benefits. The purpose and long-term vision of the Center for Advanced Subsurface Earth Resource Models for which the planning meeting made possible by this award is directed toward research challenges in the development of 3-D subsurface geologic models for mineral deposits, particularly as these models integrate diverse geoscience data to inform decision making and minimize geological risk. Four research thrusts are envisioned: (1) Development of novel geophysical and geochemical instrumentation, analysis, and interpretation methods for enhanced characterization of rock properties; (2) integration, scaling, and inversion of diverse geological, petrophysical, and geophysical data types of dissimilar spatial resolution and distribution to identify and characterize subsurface earth resources; (3) development of value of information methodologies for reducing risk associated with decision making; and (4) computational imaging and visualization, and development of graphical and exploratory data analysis solutions and visualization tools. Achieving this broad vision requires collaboration of economic geologists, geophysicists, statisticians, and computational mathematicians. Colorado School of Mines' partnership with Virginia Tech provides the basis for leading 3-D global subsurface earth resource modeling. The Colorado School of Mines has assembled an interdisciplinary research team with specialties in mineral and rock chemical and physical properties, economic geology, mining engineering, spatial and spatio-temporal geostatistics, quantification of uncertainty, gravity and electromagnetic methods in resource exploration, inversion modeling, and high performance computing. These specialties complement Virginia Tech's core competencies in inverse theory, seismology, and computational imaging. The Center's activities will transform the way geoscience data are used in the exploration and mining industry sector, beginning with the initial exploratory stage and continuing through mine closure and environmental remediation. In this regard, the objective of the planning meeting is to bring the exploration and mining industry sector and the faculty teams at the Colorado School of Mines and Virginia Tech together to determine a mutual research agenda and to explore industry commitment to the Center. Because the success of the Center depends on the long-term vested interest and involvement of industry partners, the planning meeting will focus on listening to the needs of the companies and together creating a research and business plan that will define the Center's vision.