Faculty Beese named co-director of additive manufacturing center CIMP-3D 01/10/2023 Allison Beese, associate professor of materials science and engineering, will serve as co-director of the Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition, effective Jan 1. |
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Faculty Humidity may be the key to super-lubricity 'switch' 01/09/2023 Sometimes friction is good, such as the friction between a road and a car’s tires to prevent the vehicle from skidding. But sometimes friction is bad — if you did not put oil in that very same car, there would be so much friction in the bearings of the engine that the car could not operate. |
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Faculty Event lifts curtain on a bright future for materials research 01/06/2023 The 2022 Materials Day event, presented by the Materials Research Institute with the theme “Materials Impacting Society,” featured a look at what might be on the horizon as far as materials research with positive societal impact. |
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Faculty EarthTalks speaker series returns starting Jan. 9 01/05/2023 Given the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute's (EESI) history of understanding the Earth as a system, the spring 2023 EarthTalks speaker series is intended to provide a venue for the expansion of participants' horizons into the solar system. |
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Faculty Study sheds light on how ‘forever chemicals’ travel in groundwater 01/04/2023 A large family of chemicals used for decades to improve our lives — from nonstick cooking pans to waterproof clothing — are now known as "forever chemicals" because they do not easily break down in the environment and pose potential health risks as they build up in our bodies. A new study may improve our understanding of how these chemicals move in the groundwater, according to a team of scientists. |
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Faculty 'Growing Impact' podcast focuses on air quality, health in western Pa. 01/03/2023 The latest episode of the "Growing Impact" podcast features a project focused on air quality and health concerns in western Pennsylvania |
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Faculty Researchers encouraged to submit proposals for Earthshot Prize 12/16/2022 Penn State faculty and staff are invited to submit nominations for the Earthshot Prize 2023, an international competition aimed at identifying the most promising solutions to environmental challenges. |
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Faculty Sloan Foundation grant to fund research on governance of the U.S. electric grid 12/16/2022 Seth Blumsack, professor of energy and environmental economics and international affairs, was awarded a $1,193,307 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to sustain and expand an interdisciplinary research network focused on the regional organizations that manage the electric power transmission grid in the United States and how the governance of these regional transmission organizations (RTOs) impacts outcomes for market efficiency, sustainability, equity, reliability and resilience. |
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Faculty Changes in Earth’s orbit may have triggered ancient warming event 12/13/2022 Changes in Earth’s orbit that favored hotter conditions may have helped trigger a rapid global warming event 56 million years ago that is considered an analogue for modern climate change, according to an international team of scientists. |
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Faculty Model shows how intelligent-like behavior can emerge from non-living agents 12/12/2022 From a distance, they looked like clouds of dust. Yet, the swarm of microrobots in author Michael Crichton’s bestseller “Prey” was self-organized. It acted with rudimentary intelligence, learning, evolving and communicating with itself to grow more powerful. |