Penn State Energy and Environment News

industryXchange to connect researchers, government, industry at Pittsburgh event

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Registration is now open for the Penn State College of Engineering industryXchange. The May 21-22 event in Pittsburgh will focus on robotics and bring together Penn State researchers and industry and government partners to explore collaboration opportunities. 

May 15 webinar to address green infrastructure for healthy communities

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As communities grapple with issues such as stormwater management, flooding, urban heat loads and air quality issues, presenters during a May 15 Penn State Extension land-use webinar will discuss services provided by green infrastructure that can improve the quality of life, resilience, and environmental and human health in communities.

Penn State Climate Consortium adds two associate directors to leadership team

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Two interdisciplinary researchers have been named as associate directors for the Penn State Climate Consortium.

Many people in the Arctic are staying put despite climate change, study reports

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A team led by Penn State researchers reviewed studies from the past 30 years to examine whether climate change is causing people to migrate out of the Arctic — or if, and why, they’re deciding to stay. They found that while individuals are not yet relocating due to climate change, at least one whole community has.

First-generation honor society at University Park inducts inaugural class

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The  Eta Psi chapter of Tri-Alpha, a national honor society for first-generation college students, inducted its first members on April 22 at a ceremony in the Pattee and Paterno Library’s Foster Auditorium.

$4.99M DOE grant to build domestic supply chain for critical minerals

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A Penn State research team was recently awarded a $4.99 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop and assess advanced separation technologies for the extraction and recovery of rare earth elements and other critical materials from coal, coal wastes and coal by-products.

SustainaLions, new Employee Resource Group announced 

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New Employee Resource Group to focus on educating, engaging and connecting with Penn State employees to promote and support sustainability across the University. 

University to provide $10.2M to centrally fund faculty promotions in FY25, FY26

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As part of an ongoing commitment to investing in faculty and staff, Penn State will be contributing more than $4.8 million toward faculty promotions in the fiscal year 2024-25 budget and $5.4 million in fiscal year 2025-26. Along with support for tenure-line promotions, the University will now also fund non-tenure-line faculty promotions at all campuses centrally starting in fiscal year 2024-25 — meaning these promotions and salary increases will not be funded out of individual college, institute or campus budgets.

Engineering researcher awarded IEE 'Person of the Year' for 2023

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Li Li, the Barry and Shirley Isett Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Penn State, is the 2023 recipient of the Institute of Energy and the Environment’s Person of the Year Award.

Penn State Extension praised by state for native plant gardens in Philadelphia

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The Penn State Extension Master Watershed Steward program in Philadelphia County, in partnership with the Friends of Wharton Square Park, recently received a Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence, presented annually by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Video series shares sustainability lessons from trip to New Zealand, Australia

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, Annie Taylor hopes videos will bring an invaluable experience — an opportunity to learn about sustainability — to everyone, without traveling far from home. Last year, Taylor, senior assistant dean for distance learning in the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Kaitlin Farnan, a business instructor at Penn State Altoona, led 20 Penn State students on a trip to New Zealand and Australia to learn about sustainable business practices.

S. Shyam Sundar named Evan Pugh University Professor

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S. Shyam Sundar, the James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects, director of the Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence and founding director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory, has been named an Evan Pugh University Professor, the highest honor that Penn State bestows on a faculty member.