Navigate Education in PA, created by the staff at Penn State's Center for Science and the Schools, is an online database that contains information on more than 4,800 Pennsylvania education agencies, including public, private and charter schools; intermediate units; career and technology centers; and higher education institutions.
A University-wide effort to promote the study of microbiomes at Penn State has led to the creation of a center for microbiome research, a fast-growing area of scientific inquiry. Microbiomes are the communities of microorganisms that live on or in people, plants, soil, oceans and the atmosphere.
The Big Ten Academic Alliance Geospatial Data Portal Project, of which Penn State University Libraries is a contributor, has launched an online spatial data discovery tool called the Big Ten Academic Alliance Geoportal. The project and geoportal aim to provide discoverability, facilitate access and connect scholars across the Big Ten Academic Alliance to often scattered geospatial data resources.
The National Science Foundation has named William E. Easterling III, professor of geography and dean of Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS), to serve as director for the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) in Washington D.C., which supports fundamental research spanning the atmospheric, earth, ocean and polar sciences.