Adam W. Duran
Programs built from zero, research shaping technology and practice, and partnerships that sustain them.
- $1.048BRaised by GCxN portfolio companies
- $10.5M+Career competitive funding (PI / Proposal Lead)
- 252Track-declared students (0 to 252 in three years)
- 1stPlace nationally, DOE Battery Workforce Challenge Year 1
- 1,044Google Scholar citations (h-index 17, i10-index 21)
About
I am an Assistant Teaching Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado School of Mines. With nearly two decades of combined industry and academic leadership, I bring a perspective shaped by both large-scale R&D program management and frontline teaching.
Before joining Mines full-time, I spent twelve years at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2008-2020, now the National Laboratory of the Rockies), progressing from Student Research Assistant to Senior Research Engineer to Program Manager. In that time I led technical development of the Fleet DNA commercial vehicle database, directed the multimillion-dollar GCxN clean energy accelerator in partnership with Shell, and served as PI on multiple DOE-funded vehicle technology projects. I then spent two years as a Senior Engineer at Quantitative Scientific Solutions (2020-2022), leading research on automated driving systems.
My work spans engineering education, experiential program design, and industry partnership, along with the scholarship that connects them. I publish on the technical problems of vehicle electrification and on the pedagogical question of how engineers are trained for that work. Most of my career has gone into building programs from the ground up: connecting curriculum to workforce needs, securing external funding, and creating the institutional infrastructure that keeps hands-on, team-based engineering education running long after launch.
I am a three-time Mines graduate (B.S. 2009, M.S. Mechanical 2011, M.S. Engineering and Technology Management 2016), now teaching the next generation of Mines engineers in the same department where I started.
Institutional & Industry Partners
Programs Built
These are programs I've built or helped lead, from a cleantech accelerator at a national laboratory to an engineering track at Mines that grew from zero to 252 students.
Impact, Visualized
The charts below track how three of these programs have grown since launch.
Mines Automotive Engineering Program: Declared Students
Built from inception in 2022 with Prof. P. Brodsky. Now 2nd-largest elective track in ME.
GCxN Portfolio Companies: Capital Raised ($M, cumulative)
Shell GameChanger Accelerator Powered by NREL. Co-founded and directed 2018-2020; portfolio continues to compound.
Source: GCxN Year in Review 2025 Annual Report. 30 portfolio companies; $140:1 leverage ratio on Shell project funding.
Career Competitive Funding ($M, cumulative as PI / Proposal Lead)
Spans NREL Fleet DNA, GCxN, QS-2 portfolio, BWC, and EcoCAR Innovation Challenge. NREL era closes in 2020; Mines era opens in 2022.
Publications
Full Record on Google Scholar →My research spans vehicle electrification, advanced battery systems, and the workforce and pedagogy questions that determine whether we can train the engineers to deploy them. I contribute vehicle-systems and fleet-data expertise to multi-institution collaborations on the hard technical problems of the energy transition, including two recent papers in ACS Energy Letters (2024, 2025) on decarbonizing off-road vehicles. I am now extending that work into engineering-education scholarship on experiential program design and faculty workload.
Works in Progress
Selected Publications Showing 14 of 30+
Teaching
* Course developed or co-developed by instructor
Open Course Materials
Sample materials from courses I've developed, freely available for adoption and adaptation. Full course packages are hosted on GitHub with automated build pipelines.
- Student Guide PDF
- Master Reference PDF
- Student Guide PDF
- Master Reference PDF
- Student Guide PDF
- PA Instructor Guide PDF
- Course Text PDF
Recent Essays
All essays →Higher Ed Recruits Practitioners. It Does Not Onboard Them.
Universities say they want faculty who have done the work. Then they hire us and leave us to figure out the institution alone. On pull-based systems, missing instrumentation, and why the instinct to measure is the capability they hired.
The Money Didn't Leave Climate Tech. It Left the Part That Matters Most.
Climate tech posted a near-record funding year while early-stage capital quietly collapsed. The lab-embedded accelerator model is becoming core infrastructure for American energy innovation, and we should treat it that way.
The Battery Workforce Gap Won't Be Closed by the Programs That Work Best
The data says we need a six-fold larger battery workforce by 2030. The model that produces hire-ready engineers already exists. The reason it doesn't scale is an incentive problem inside universities, not a funding problem outside them.
Recent & Upcoming
Selected for KEEN EM-FUEL (Entrepreneurial Mindset for Future University Engineering Leaders), a competitive national program that prepares engineering faculty for expanded roles of institutional influence across the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network. The 2027 cohort convenes in December 2026.
Named a 2026 National KEEN Rising Star, one of three faculty selected nationally by the KEEN Awards Committee, honoring those who have gone above and beyond to equip undergraduate engineers with an entrepreneurial mindset to create personal, economic, and societal value for others. The award includes a Kern Family Foundation grant to Colorado School of Mines and recognition at the KEEN National Conference. Read the award interview with Renee McLachlan of the Kern Family Foundation.
Named a 2026 KEEN Engineering Unleashed Fellow, one of 30 faculty selected nationally. The Kern Family Foundation-funded project, Fail Faster, Build Better, is a class activity in which students use generative AI to draft and refine test plans against user-defined requirements, then critically evaluate and defend the results. Fellowship begins Fall 2026. Read the Mines announcement.
Selected for DOE EcoCAR Innovation Challenge as Co-PI, one of a limited number of institutions nationwide. Approximately $520K over four years.
Selected as part of a small group of nationally recognized experts for the KEEN Crescendo Program.
New course launch: EBGN 599 Financial Engineering, an accelerated 8-week online graduate course taught as an independent study.
Named Mines Trefny Center Engineering Learning Fellow and Kern Family Foundation Community Catalyst, Cohort 13, joining a small national group of faculty who curate Engineering Unleashed content and connect educators across the KEEN network.
Co-authored paper in ACS Energy Letters on decarbonizing off-road vehicles.
DOE Battery Workforce Challenge: 1st place nationally in the inaugural Year 1 competition, with prize money awarded to the student team.
As Covered In
"University leadership has been exceptionally supportive of the Battery Workforce Challenge team, recognizing its alignment with our mission to deliver hands-on, industry-relevant engineering education."
For Students
I actively seek motivated undergraduate and graduate students interested in project-based engineering education, vehicle dynamics, automotive systems, and program development. Here's how to get involved:
MEGN 598/599 projects in vehicle dynamics, suspension testing, battery systems, and financial engineering. I've supervised 18+ students since 2022.
Email me with your resume and area of interest.
Join the EcoCAR Innovation Challenge or Formula SAE. Every team designs, builds, and tests real vehicle systems alongside industry mentors.
No prior experience required.
I serve on MS thesis and PhD committees in vehicle dynamics, engineering education, clean energy systems, and technology entrepreneurship. Drawing on my experience co-founding Method & Muse Spirits and directing the GCxN startup accelerator, I also mentor students on commercialization, venture strategy, and intellectual property.
Reach out to discuss your research or entrepreneurial interests.
Reach out with your resume and a few sentences on what you'd like to work on. Most independent study and competition openings fill at the start of each semester.
Email Me to Get InvolvedBeyond the Lab
When I'm not teaching or building programs, you'll usually find me:
Yoga and climbing in the Front Range. Both reward patience and small adjustments, which is most of engineering.
Charcoal drawing and sketching, mostly as a practice in looking carefully.
Hiking, skiing, and exploring the Front Range. Golden is one of the best places in the country to be an engineer.
Co-founder of Method & Muse Spirits (project page), an award-winning craft distillery with a tasting room in downtown Arvada, with fellow Mines faculty and alumni.
Collaboration & Partnership
I actively seek partnerships and leadership opportunities across three domains where engineering practice meets education and entrepreneurship.
Building, scaling, and assessing mastery-based engineering programs built around real projects. Open to research collaborations, advisory roles, and cross-institutional initiatives.
Connecting academic programs to real workforce needs through capstone, competition teams, and credit-bearing industry partnerships. Open to corporate sponsors and federal program partners.
Vehicle electrification, advanced battery systems, drive cycle analysis, and cleantech commercialization. Open to consulting, advisory boards, and sponsored research.
If you're working at any of these intersections, I'd like to hear from you.
Start a ConversationCurriculum Vitae
Full academic CV including complete publication list, funding record, service, and professional credentials.
Updated October 2026 · Source at github.com/professor-duran/academic-cv