Penn State Energy and Environment News

Penn State No. 1 US producer of faculty Fulbright Scholars for 2019-20

| psu.edu

Penn State has been recognized as the top U.S. producer of faculty Fulbright Scholars for 2019-20 by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In addition, the University is listed as a top producer of student Fulbright recipients.

Emerging organic contaminant levels greatly influenced by stream flows, seasons

| phys.org

Flow rates and time of year must be taken into account to better understand the potential risks posed by emerging organic contaminants in rivers and streams, according to Penn State researchers who studied contaminant concentrations and flow characteristics at six locations near drinking water intakes in the Susquehanna River basin.

Professor to study food-energy-water decision-making

| psu.edu

Caitlin Grady, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and co-hire of the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State, received a NSF CAREER Award to examine food-energy-water decision-making.

Spring speakers for Coffee Hour lecture series announced

| psu.edu

The Department of Geography Coffee Hour lecture series resumes on Friday afternoons beginning Jan. 31 through April 24 for the spring 2020 semester on Penn State's University Park campus. Topics range from innovations in GIScience, to food security to land use and justice issues, among others.

How anti-sprawl policies may be harming water quality

| psu.edu

Urban growth boundaries, which aim to decrease negative impacts on people and the environment, can have a reverse effect on water quality, according to a Penn State researcher.

A new way to research water

| psu.edu

A researcher at Penn State is developing a way to consistently research water and its effects on human biology and health.

Spring 2020 EarthTalks series presents science toward solutions

| psu.edu

The spring 2020 EarthTalks series, "Societal Problems, EESI Science towards Solutions," features scientists from Penn State’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and explores the human impacts on the global environment and how to apply this knowledge to decision-making.

New director to increase Penn State’s impact on today’s water challenges

| news.psu.edu

Andrew Warner has joined the Institutes of Energy and the Environment as the director of a new University-wide initiative designed to elevate Penn State’s prominence as a center of excellence in water.

The new geographers: Six faculty hires are driving the future of the field

| psu.edu

Six new tenure-line geography faculty started this fall in the Department of Geography. They conduct research on a wide variety of subjects including water, climate change, natural hazards, remote sensing, social networks, data mining, economics, and inequality and diversity.

Hurricane Dorian devastates Bahamas; scientists explain storm's unique evolution

| psu.edu

Hurricane Dorian's unusual evolution represented a worst-case scenario for the Bahamas, according to experts at Penn State.

Penn State researchers lead the way in Water-Energy-Food research in Africa

| psu.edu

Three Penn State researchers — Rachel Brennan, in the College of Engineering, and Mike Jacobson and Brian Thiede, in the College of Agricultural Sciences — recently received $250,000 in University Strategic Plan seed funding to address global Water-Energy-Food challenges.

Data assimilation method offers improved hurricane forecasting

| psu.edu

Operational models for severe weather forecasting predicted Hurricane Harvey would become a Category 1 hurricane in 2017, according to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Instead, it became a massive Category 4 just before it made landfall, tying Hurricane Katrina for the costliest hurricane on record.