Historically, wildfire research has focused on the western United States. However, changing climate conditions, increasing drought severity and dense development patterns are rapidly altering wildfire risk across the Eastern United States. Penn State hosted the Eastern Wildfire Forum in September to address the growing challenge of wildfire in the commonwealth and across the Eastern United States.

Luyi Han, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Penn State, will give the talk “Local food prices, SNAP purchasing power, and food insecurity,” at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 14, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State’s University Park campus.

Renee Obringer, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State, will give the talk “Understanding climate change impacts on renewable energy: Insights from explainable AI” at 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, in 117 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building on the University Park campus. The talk will also be available via Zoom.

Zhifeng Gao, professor in the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida, will give the talk “How availability and accessibility shape online grocery choices: evidence from hypothetical and real choice experiments,” at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 30, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State’s University Park campus.

Roberto Fernández, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State, will give the talk “Living with Water” at 2 p.m. on Sept. 25, in 117 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building on the University Park campus. The talk will also be available via Zoom.

Shotaro Nakamura, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Penn State, will give the talk “Monetary and non-monetary barriers to accessing environmental public benefit programs: experimental evidence from California,” at noon on Friday, Sept. 25, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State’s University Park campus.

Kaleigh Yost, assistant professor of geotechnical engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Penn State, will give the talk “Improving liquefaction modeling for partially saturated soils under fluctuating groundwater conditions” at 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept.18, in 117 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building at University Park. The talk will able be available via Zoom.

Jeremy Weber, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Pittsburgh, will give the talk “Can environmental restoration help revitalize communities? Evidence from treating abandoned mine drainage in Pennsylvania” at noon on Friday, Sept. 18, in 157 Hosler Building at Penn State University Park.

Tyler Paladino, research geophysicist at the United States Geological Survey (USGS), will give the talk “Preparing for volcanic eruption hazards using operational geodesy, machine learning, and probabilistic ash dispersal modeling tools,” at 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept 11, in 117 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building at Penn State University Park. Talk will also be available via Zoom.

Jingzhou Wang, a graduate student in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Penn State, will give the talk “Flood Risk and Housing Markets without Flood Insurance: Evidence from 1930s Pittsburgh,” at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 9, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State's University Park campus.