News

To meet growing air conditioning energy needs, a team of researchers at Penn State is developing new materials that cool their surroundings when bent or stressed. On the latest episode of “Growing Impact,” the team discusses how this cutting-edge technology could transform the future of building climate control. 

Thirteen Penn State engineering students from the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering (EME) in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences took home several awards and scholarships from the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and the American Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE) this spring.

The Leone Family Foundation recently awarded grants to support three Penn State priorities: the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, the Willie Leone Scholarship Fund in Music and Penn State Centre Stage. Offering a total of $300,000 in support, the grants will fill critical funding gaps for experiential learning opportunities in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and the College of Arts and Architecture.

Penn State is offering two new graduate certificates in its energy and sustainability portfolio that can help professionals seeking to play a role in the global shift towards sustainable energy solutions.

When Harman Singh began graduate school at Penn State, she didn’t just bring research interests, she brought experience. As an undergraduate, Singh had participated in the Department of Geography’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Connection (UROC) program, where graduate students mentor undergraduates through hands-on research. Now a doctoral student in geography, Singh has come full circle, serving as UROC’s graduate coordinator and continuing to mentor students herself.

Penn State’s Cocoziello Institute of Real Estate Innovation has awarded seed grants to five interdisciplinary research projects. These grants support collaborative projects led by Penn State faculty who aim to generate innovative solutions to complex challenges in real estate and the built environment. 

Each semester, staff across Penn State's colleges pull off what seems like an impossible task: Host the perfect ceremony to cap off every student's journey toward a degree. But commencement ceremonies are an undertaking that can't happen overnight. It takes the dedicated work of commencement coordinators and college staff to plan, prepare for and execute the biggest annual event at University Park.

Cristina Elena Mihalache, a Fulbright Scholar from Romania, has spent the past eight months with the Penn State Department of Geography advancing her research in geospatial sciences and remote sensing.

It took a series of events for things to fall into place. First, a mastodon had to live its life in the rolling terrain of Iowa, fossilize and be exposed by erosion in a nearby stream some 13,000 years later. Chris Widga, a vertebrate paleontologist at Penn State, had to find a home as director of the EMS Museum & Art Gallery. And Kaitlin Dasovich, a student in geosciences, had to develop a spark for undergraduate research.

For the first time, scientists have discovered fossil evidence of an endangered, living tropical tree species. The unprecedented find was made in Brunei, a country on the large island of Borneo, and reveals a critical piece of the ancient history of Asia’s rainforests, highlighting the urgent need for conservation in the region, according to researchers at Penn State who led the discovery.