URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/2OP10-12.HTM
Opinion

N.M. Tech Misses Few Chances for Research Come high water or hail, New Mexico Tech researchers are doing science.
   Last week's brutal hail storm left an estimated $15 million in damage on the campus. But because it is one of the nation's top thunderstorm research centers, it also provided opportunity. Members of Tech's physics department swung into action, gathering and analyzing the hailstones of mass destruction and the forces that produced them.

   The ad hoc project is indicative of the zeal that is one of the factors of the Socorro school's being such a good value in technically oriented education. Another is cost; Tech has the second lowest costs for in-state students in the country.

   The 1,800-student university can keep costs low and within reach of more state residents because federally funded "research pays a lot of the bills," according to Van Romero, vice president for research.

   And it gets federal funding, because it does good work. The most recently announced grant involves $3.25 million for research to enhance domestic oil production.

   "This kind of ... funding to one place," noted David Garman, acting undersecretary of energy, "illustrates to me real science excellence. ... It shows me that you are developing science that is important to the nation."

   Some of the research aims to improve a wildcatter's odds of bringing in a productive well. Other projects aim to reduce the environmental effects of drilling by reducing the amount of brackish water released from deep underground or by finding methods of treatment to render produced water useful.

   This is of importance, as well, to New Mexico, where small petroleum producers are a mainstay of the economy and state revenues, and where any drop of water should be considered an asset rather than waste.