EMS Sustainability News

The Penn State Department of Geography will conclude its spring 2025 Coffee Hour lecture series with a talk by Jessica Omukuti, senior research fellow at the University of Oxford’s Institute for Science, Innovation and Society and Oxford Net Zero. 

To protect against rising sea levels in a warming world, coastal cities typically follow a standard playbook with various protective infrastructure options. For example, a seawall could be designed based on the latest climate projections, with the city officials then computing its cost-benefit ratio and proceeding to build, accordingly.

As an undergraduate student at Penn State, Olivia DiPrinzio discovered a passion for sustainability and pursued it to help transform the University’s approach to sustainability education. 

Brandi Robinson, associate teaching professor in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, has received the 2025 Penn State Award for Community Engagement and Scholarship for her work on the Local Climate Action Program. 

Readily available but underused Doppler radar data can help predict the height of the planetary boundary layer — the lowest part of the atmosphere and where weather forms — and, in turn, improve severe weather forecasts, according to scientists at Penn State.  

Emily Grubert, associate professor of sustainable energy policy at Notre Dame, will give the talk, “Public Support for Energy and Climate Technology Deployment,” at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 14, via Zoom.

Award-winning author and journalist Susan Freinkel will give the virtual talk “How Did We Get Hooked on Plastic?” at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, April 14. It will be streamed in Foster Auditorium of Paterno Library and available on Zoom. 

The April Climate Conversations Café will host Brianna Craft, a climate justice researcher and author, for a discussion on diplomacy, climate-change negotiations and storytelling. 

The Penn State Department of Geography’s GeoGraphics Lab will host its first Community Mapping Day on Saturday, April 5, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Walker Building at University Park. The event, free and open to the public, will kick off with an optional breakfast at 8 a.m. and bring together students, faculty and community members for a day of hands-on mapping, creative geospatial storytelling and collaborative problem-solving centered on sustainability and local climate action.

Faced with more extreme weather events, communities may need to adapt to heightened risks from sea-level rise, flooding or wildfires. And while scientific research can help inform adaptations, the process requires an alignment of academic resources and real-world needs and partnerships that can be challenging for scientists to navigate.