News

Schreyer Honors College Scholar Hannah Pohlmann will be officially presented with the prestigious Astronaut Scholarship at a ceremony on Oct. 13. Pohlmann, a senior studying Materials Science and Engineering and mathematics, has been actively involved in polymers research during her Penn State career. This past summer, she served as a product and applications development intern at ExxonMobil. 

Five students enrolled in College of Agricultural Sciences programs, including Maddy Nyblade, a senior majoring in geosciences and minoring in international agriculture, will represent Penn State at the 2017 Borlaug Dialogue, one of the events planned during the annual World Food Prize International Symposium, Oct. 18-20 in Des Moines, Iowa.

 The Graduate School at Penn State is pleased to host 15 new National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award recipients for the 2017-18 academic year.

Jim Steenburgh, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah and Penn State alumnus, will give the 2017 Lattman Visiting Scholar of Science and Society Lecture. His talk, titled “Communicating Science in the 21st Century: Personal and Political Challenges and Opportunities,” will be held from 2:30 to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 6, in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum on the ground floor of Deike Building. The event is free and open to the public.

Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State, will receive the James H. Shea Award from the National Association of Geoscience Teachers.

Thomas V. Falkie, a distinguished alumnus who served as head of the Department of Mineral Engineering (the predecessor to the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering) from 1969 to 1973 at Penn State, was inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame on Sept. 23 at the annual National Mining Hall of Fame Induction Banquet in Denver.

Jennifer Baka, assistant professor in the department of geography, has been at Penn State for a little more than a year, but she has a lifetime of experience assessing the implications of energy. She grew up in a coal mining region of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and watching the relationship a rural community has with a global enterprise factored into her choice to become an energy geographer. It’s a field that combines political and industrial ecology to look at how energy projects impact all segments of society.

The Sustainability Institute has announced Penn State’s participation in the 2017 EcoChallenge. Faculty, staff and students are invited to participate in the challenge by changing one or more personal habits over the course of two weeks, from Oct. 11–25.

The 2017 GEMS Industry Forum, “Balancing our Energy Future,” will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 28 in 114 Steidle Building on the University Park campus. There will be a reception held before the forum at 6 p.m. in the Steidle Building lobby.

Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center was awarded a $35,000 grant from the West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund to install sustainable energy technologies in the center’s new construction. The grant is one of several efforts made to include eco-friendly elements.