Our graduate students are integral to the research we conduct, and they also are dedicated to making a difference in communities. Learn more about their research, outreach efforts, and other projects below.
News
Geography lecture to explore climate change and mental health in Ghana
Thelma Abu, assistant professor of environment and human interactions at the University of Connecticut, will deliver a talk titled “Invisible Wounds of a Warming World" at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 31, in 112 Walker Building and will also be accessible via Zoom. Abu will examine how climate extremes, particularly rising temperatures in semi-arid regions of Africa, affect mental health outcomes in low-resource settings.
EarthTalks: Executive to address mine development, needs in critical minerals
Geochemist Rens Verburg, senior vice president and technical fellow in geochemistry at the engineering and professional services firm WSP USA, will give a free talk, “The Critical Minerals Rush — Not So Fast,” at 4 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 3.
Simulation workshop on Nov. 4 to highlight ethics and policy in space governance
On Tuesday, Nov. 4, the Science Policy Society graduate student organization at Penn State invites the campus community to explore these questions through a hands-on, scenario-based workshop titled "Conservation Policy in the Final Frontier: Strategic Simulation for Earth and Space Governance." The event is organized by Dani Buchheister, doctoral candidate in geosciences and astrobiology.
Graduate fieldwork in Malawi connects restoration, data and community
For two Penn State geography graduate students, fieldwork in Southern Africa offered more than a research assignment. It provided a front-row view of how science, community and collaboration come together in the effort to restore landscapes undergoing rapid environmental change. Faisal Elias and Abdul-Salam Jahanfo Abdulai spent more than a month in Malawi this summer as part of the Socio-Ecological Outcomes and Monitoring of Restoration in Mosaic Dry Forest-Grassland Ecosystems project, a U.S. National Science Foundation-funded collaborative and interdisciplinary project led by Penn State Assistant Professor of Geography Ida Djenontin.
ICDS Symposium spotlights student, faculty research
The Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences Symposium highlighted University students and faculty across various disciplines, including some from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, applying artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computational, data and quantum sciences methodologies to their research. Wan Ki “Arthur” Lo, geosciences doctoral student, won third place in the poster session at the symposium for his research, “Analysis of Ground Deformation Preceding the December 2020 – May 2021 Eruption at Kilauea Volcano, Hawai’i."
Oct. 23 lecture: Tailoring quantum dot growth for novel quantum light sources
Paul J. Simmonds, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Tufts University, will present “Tensile-strained self-assembly: Nanoscale stretching for novel quantum light sources” as part of the Penn State Department of Materials Science and Engineering’s 590 seminar series. The talk will be held from 3:05 to 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, in 112 Kern Building on the University Park campus.
EarthTalks highlights critical minerals research with fall series
The Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Penn State is focusing its fall 2025 EarthTalks series on needs, opportunities and research in critical minerals. Ten public seminars through early December will highlight ongoing work and viewpoints both at the University and across the sector, including at the federal level.
Simple stabilizing solution leads to seven new ceramic materials
By removing oxygen during synthesis, a team led by materials scientists at Penn State created seven new high-entropy oxides, or HEOs: a class of ceramics composed of five or more metals with potential for applications in energy storage, electronics and protective coatings.
Decoding dangers of Arctic sea ice with seismic, radar method
Sea ice coverage in the Arctic Ocean is at one of its lowest levels on record, yet there’s no unanimity on when that ice will disappear completely during summer months. Understanding the traits and movements of the remaining ice is a persistent challenge for scientists, but a study by researchers at Penn State has provided a new tool to explore ice characteristics and interactions along with coastal conditions.
Shedding light on materials in the physical, biological sciences
With nonlinear optical microscopy — a specialized imaging technique that looks for a change in the color of intense laser light — researchers can collect data on how the light interacts with the sample and, through time-consuming and sometimes expensive analyses, characterize the material’s structure and other properties. Now, researchers at Penn State have developed a computational framework that can interpret the nonlinear optical microscopy images to characterize the material in microscopic detail.