Nuclear energy already plays a pivotal role in powering some of the largest economies in the U.S., including Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas, and it could be the key to offsetting a rapidly increasing demand for electricity across the country, according to researchers at Penn State.

Penn State’s highly ranked mining engineering program is slated to be among the recipients of a proposed $100 million investment from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation.

An opportunity grant for non-tenure-line faculty offered through the Center for Faculty Development and Advancement can be used for professional development, advancing approaches for educating students or for acquiring skills that help improve a program at Penn State. Sekhar Bhattacharyya, associate teaching professor of mining engineering, used it to do all three.

Hamad Hussain will represent both the Penn State College of the Liberal Arts and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences as college marshal at the University’s summer 2026 commencement ceremony on Aug. 15 at the Bryce Jordan Center.

With a background in environmental systems, Kaleah Moran sees the mining industry from a side that’s less public-facing. Moran, who earned an undergraduate degree from Penn State in environmental systems engineering (ENVSE) in May, has been spending the summer working at Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Copper Mine in Utah, learning how industries mitigate the byproduct selenium, which poses risks to aquatic ecosystems.

Penn State’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Institute of Energy and the Environment recently hosted the AI Data Center Integration to Power Grids Workshop at the Engineering Collaborative Research and Education (ECoRE) Building on the University Park campus.

Thirty-six Penn State graduate students have received scholarships of up to $10,000 from the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Endowment, established by Jeff and Ann Marie Fox’s $20 million naming gift to Penn State’s J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School. The 36 students are studying in 32 master’s or doctoral degree programs.

A new planning tool under development at Penn State could help keep the lights on as the U.S. electric grid faces growing pressures from extreme weather, renewable energy and data centers, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. On the latest episode of “Growing Impact,” researchers discuss how the tool identifies unlikely but plausible combinations of events that could threaten grid reliability and inform smarter investments in transmission lines and power plants.

Fourteen interdisciplinary research teams have received funding through the Institute of Energy and the Environment’s (IEE) 2026 Seed Grant Program. The program supports basic and applied research that lays the groundwork to pursue external funding and is guided by IEE’s five strategic research themes. This year, the program awarded seed funding to more than 40 researchers across 10 colleges and campuses and 21 departments and units.

A plastic bottle tossed into a recycling bin could one day help power an electric vehicle, smartphone or renewable energy storage system, according to a team of Penn State researchers.