New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, New Mexico

The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, also called New Mexico Tech, is a technical university and part of the state university system. Though enrollment is only around 1,600, NM Tech is significant as the parent organization for several major research and development institutions: the Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research, the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center, the Geophysical Research Center, the Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources and the Petroleum Research and Recovery Center, and the Homeland Security Training Site at Playas. The largest of these is the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC), an agency dedicated to research and development of explosive materials. The Geophysical Research Center directs research in atmospheric physics and chemistry, hydrology and seismology. One of the Center's key facilities is the Wood's Tunnel Seismic Observatory, a seismological test chamber located in Socorro Peak, west of the Main Campus. Also, operated by NM Tech is the Petroleum Research and Recovery Center, one of the world's premier oil recovery strategy labs, and the Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research. The Langmuir Lab specializes in lightning, cloud physics, and water chemistry research, and is known for its storm-chasing scientists who fly into violent thunderstorms to take measurements in a heavily equipped Schweizer aircraft. Next to the Langmuir Lab in the Magdalena Mountains, 17 miles southwest of the NM Tech campus, is the Joint Observatory for Cometary Research, operated by NM Tech, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. This twin-domed observatory conducts research related to comets and other astronomical phenomena.