Dr. Darryl P. Butt has been the Dean of the College of Mines and Earth Sciences since 2016. He is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and also the Director of the MUSE, Energy Frontiers Research Center. The mission of MUSE is to develop a new fundamental understanding and models of the transport and interfacial properties of fluids confined by porous media by integrating multi-scale experimental and theoretical methods including state-of-the-art microscopy imaging, and validated multi-scale, physics-based modeling of hierarchical and natural nanostructured materials of varying levels of physical and chemical heterogeneities. 

Prior to joining the University of Utah Dean Butt was a Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Boise State University.  He was with BSU for eleven years serving as Department Chair between 2008 and 2013, and as an Associate Director of the Center for Advanced Energy Studies from 2007 to 2016.  He has held various academic, research and leadership positions with Ceramatec, Inc., A. P. Green Industries, the University of Florida, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.  The author or co-author of approximately 240 peer reviewed publications and ten patents, his research and interests have been diverse including development of sensors and materials for extreme environments and energy applications, membrane technologies for gas separation and syngas production, technical issues associated with nuclear non-proliferation and international security, chemical and engineering solutions to carbon dioxide emissions including early work on sequestration, and materials issues associated with art and cultural heritage.