I have a longstanding interest in the development of new technologies to improve mine safety and productivity, specifically miners health and safety, geomaterials characterization, rock breakage, energy/process efficiency, and renewable energy. I am leading efforts to provide options for mitigating heat-related emergencies in hot underground mines using a combination of adaptive ventilation-on-demand, identifying factors specific to deep and hot underground mines that contribute to heat strain risk, reducing the requirement for refrigeration in deep mines through the development of extremely low thermal conductivity geo-foams employing recycled mine tailing materials, contingency cooling, rapid evacuation protocols, and shelter-in-place. My physics background provides deeper insight into low-temperature geothermal energy extraction from underground mines, electricity production from photovoltaic (PV) panels installed on tailings, reducing evaporation on supernatant water (a huge concern in semiarid environments), and improving the thermal efficiency of concentrated solar thermal power generation. I am investigating the reasons for the significant improvement in rock fragmentation – up to a factor of five – when the surface charges in geomaterials are canceled. I have extensive experience in geosensing and the development of contact, non-contact and distributed sensing systems to measure physical, mechanical and geotechnical properties of geomaterials. Collectively, my efforts constitute a unique and novel contribution. I joined the faculty in the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering at the University of Arizona in 2007. I am also the Energy and Geosensing Team Leader at the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources. I hold 14 patents and patent applications related to thermally insulating materials, heat stress prediction for mine workers, rock slope stability prediction, comminution, material characterization, and renewable energy generation from mines. Before joining the faculty in the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering at the University of Arizona, I worked at McGill University in Montreal, Canada as Lecturer and Manager of the Subsurface Sensing Laboratory conducting research and providing services to mining and civil engineering companies, and government agencies related to nondestructive evaluation of underground and concrete structures. During the 2014-2015 period, I served as the President of the Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society, the premier near-surface geophysics organization devoted to promoting the science of geophysics especially as it is applied to environmental and engineering problems.