Read the latest news about research conducted by investigators in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Our faculty and students are continually advancing technology, creating solutions and expanding knowledge with new and innovative research.
06/26/2017
In 2016, a team of Penn State and U.S. Department of Energy researchers discovered a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to extract rare earth elements (REEs) from coal and coal byproducts. Now, through a $1 million grant from DOE's Office of Fossil Energy, this research may be headed one-step closer to commercialization.
06/20/2017
At about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, Carlo Pantano gets hands-on with his teaching and research. That's when the Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering pulls melted glass from the crucible at his glass blowing studio in the ground floor of the Hosler Building and begins to shape a material that's he's dedicated almost 40 years to understanding. It's a storied career at Penn State that ends June 30.
06/19/2017
Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center, Penn State, will receive the seventh annual Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communications from Climate One at the Commonwealth Club.
06/15/2017
Understanding slow-slip earthquakes in subduction zone areas may help researchers understand large earthquakes and the creation of tsunamis, according to an international team of researchers that used data from instruments placed on the seafloor and in boreholes east of the Japanese coast.
06/15/2017
Two Penn State researchers will present "Unwrapping the Power of Solar Energy" at 7 p.m. on June 20 at Liberty Craft House, 346 E. College Ave., in State College.
06/15/2017
Finding practical hydrogen storage technologies for vehicles powered by fuel cells is the focus of a $682,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, awarded to Mike Chung, professor of materials science and engineering, Penn State.
06/13/2017
A Penn State research group in the Department of Geography developed a mobile app that offers an immersive virtual tour of class gifts and public art across University Park.
06/07/2017
Zena Cardman, a doctoral student in Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, was named a member of NASA's 2017 class of astronauts on June 7. Vice President Mike Pence joined NASA officials in introducing the 12 men and women during a ceremony at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
06/07/2017
Graduate students Natalie Briggs, Joshua Woda and Nathan Smith received top recognition during the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences' Graduate Student Poster Competition on April 12 at Steidle Building on the University Park campus.
06/01/2017
The "clean-energy economy" always seems a few steps away but never quite here. Fossil fuels still power transportation, heating and cooling, and manufacturing, but a team of scientists from Penn State and Florida State University have come one step closer to inexpensive, clean hydrogen fuel with a lower cost and industrially scalable catalyst that produces pure hydrogen through a low-energy water-splitting process.