Persistent Professor Patrick Gilcrease
Patrick is a professor in Chemical Engineering at SDSM&T. He originally hails from western Kansas and graduated from Scott City, Kansas High School. He played high school football and golf.
Patrick has run since his days as a student at Colorado School of Mines in Golden. He says, “I ran a lot on Highway 6 out from Golden west toward Idaho Springs.” He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines, and his M.S. and PhD in Chemical Engineering at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. He taught for four years at the University of Wyoming in Laramie and for the past three years has been a professor at SDSM&T in the Chemical Engineering department. He came to Mines because of its emphasis on biochemistry. He is engaged in both teaching undergraduates and in one graduate program in Chem E, as well as in research. He has published in microbiology and engineering journals. While his time is divided approximately 50-50 between teaching and research, he enjoys teaching. Through funds received from Cargill, which employs many School of Mines graduates, he has established a teaching lab in permeation processes. Along with a colleague, he is researching cellular biomass to convert it into ethanol.
Patrick has a sister who lives in Albuquerque with his three nieces. His parents are still living in the family home in Scott City, Kansas.
He runs about 500 miles a year and is starting to get back into competitive races. His longest race was last year’s “Heart of the Hills” (10 miles), which he completed at an 8-minute per mile pace. He says 10Ks are his favorite runs, and of those, perhaps his all-time favorite is the Colorado Run on Labor Day in Fort Collins. His best time in that 10K run, at age 30, was 43 minutes for an impressive 6:55 minutes per mile average.
In addition to his running, Patrick does a lot of biking. He has signed up forthis summer’s “Tour de Wyoming,” which is a 400 mile round trip from Laramie to Saratoga to Casper and back to Laramie. On the first day alone, the race climbs nearly 4,000 feet, from 7,200 feet at Laramie to more than 11,000 feet at the summit.
Patrick’s persistence has paid off. In addition to his academic excellence, he has upgraded his running and biking.