If you are a current student (undergraduate or graduate) at the University of Texas-Austin, the Colorado School of Mines, or the U.S. Naval War College, you are eligible to write an essay on critical minerals, the clean energy transition, and national security. This can be broad or narrow, tackling a particular substantive dimension (such as cyber risks of the clean energy transition or workforce development in minerals) or a particular geographic focus (such as risks of instability in the lithium sector in Bolivia).
The essay must be no longer than 2000 words. You should submit the essay to busbyj@utexas.edu by no later than Friday, March 14th, 2025 at midnight central standard time (Austin time).
The winning essay will receive a $3,500 prize for a 2000 word essay on national security, critical minerals, and the clean energy transition and it will be featured on this website (though you will be free to publish it elsewhere as well). The leadership team will review submissions and decide on the awardee, no later than the end of the spring 2025 semester.
The essay should be solo-authored. Please submit proof of being a current student at one of these institutions (such as current student ID or current class schedule). Submit the essay as a WORD document as an attachment. Essays with plagiarism will not be considered. Cite all sources accordingly.
You can direct any questions to Dr. Josh Busby at the email address above. For examples of the kind of work we are interested, in see our Publications and the Memos (Mines, Austin) from the workshops we’ve organized.