George Luxbacher (SME)
AIME Presidential Citation in
2016
Dr. George W. Luxbacher is vice president of operations with Glenn Springs Holdings, a subsidiary of Occidental. Dr. Luxbacher manages Occidental’s RCRA and CERCLA liabilities related to the oil and gas, chemicals and former mining-business segments. Among other responsibilities, he deals with issues related to acid mine drainage from former coal and copper mining sites. Dr. Luxbacher is the co-inventor of a process to dredge and refine phosphorusbearing sludge into a marketable product and, as part of that work, developed, designed and constructed a phosphorus recovery plant in Tennessee. Dr. Luxbacher is a registered professional engineer and a Centennial Fellow of the Pennsylvania State University’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. He earned B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mining engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Luxbacher is a past-president of OneMine.org and a member of the SME Foundation Board of Trustees. He was president of SME in 2008. He is the founder of the Coal & Energy Division scholarship auction and luncheon speaker programs. He has served as chair of the division and on the Executive Committee of the Central Appalachian Section. He served on the ad hoc committee for SME Governance and was a driving force to create the Education Strategic Committee.