Kecojevic receives SME Distinguished Service Award

Vladislav Kecojevic(WVU Photo/Paige Nesbit)

Vladislav Kecojevic, the Robert E. Murray chair and professor of mining engineering at West Virginia University, has been selected as the recipient of the 2019 Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration’s Coal and Energy Division Distinguished Service Award.

By Olivia Miller
Communications Specialist

Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

The award, presented at the SME 2020 Annual Conference and Expo in February, recognizes Kecojevic for his dedicated and exemplary service to the coal mining industry, international education and his research collaboration with the global mining engineering community.

“I am grateful to have been selected for this distinguished award from my peers in SME and it is an honor and privilege to join those past distinguished honorees,” Kecojevic said. “I have enjoyed serving the mining community in the past and I hope to continue to serve for many years to come.”

After earning a doctorate in mining engineering from the University of Belgrade, Kecojevic worked as a mining engineer at Krupp Canada before beginning his career in academia at Penn State University. He joined the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at WVU in 2010.

Throughout his career, Kecojevic has served as SME program chair, chair of the SME Coal and Energy Division and as a member of several SME and Coal and Energy Division committees. He is currently vice president of the West Virginia Coal Mining Institute and the secretary general of the Society of Mining Professors and served as its president in2016.

SME is a professional society whose more than 15,000 memberships represents all professionals serving the minerals industry in more than 100 countries. SME advances the worldwide mining and underground construction community through information exchange and personal development.

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