Past Events: Penn State Energy and Environment Calendar Archive

Evolutionary principles are essential for understanding how biological systems adapt and for predicting how they will respond to future selective pressures. By leveraging these principles, we gain a powerful predictive framework to tackle some of society's most urgent challenges, including conserving biodiversity, protecting endangered species, managing invasive organisms, combating emerging infectious and epizootic diseases, and advancing sustainable agriculture.

The Penn State Association of Water Students (PAWS) and the Penn State Water Council invite abstract submissions for the Penn State Water Conference 2026. Faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students from all institutions and backgrounds are invited to attend, participate in discussions, and present their research through oral and poster presentations.Abstract submission deadline: February 27

This month at Science on Tap, Dr. Christopher House and Dr. Ophélie Mcintosh are leading interactive activities and conversation on what we’ve found on Mars. Most importantly, they are answering our biggest question about Mars: what have we learned about sulfur, phosphorus, and carbon on Mars?

Civil infrastructure—energy, water, buildings, and transportation—exists to support people, communities, and the broader living systems upon which civil society depends. Historically, these infrastructures have been designed and operated as separate, centralized systems. Electrification, climate constraints, and increasing system complexity now require a fundamentally different approach: infrastructure must operate as an integrated, coordinated, and adaptive whole.

Penn State Altoona will hold a panel discussion for Women’s History Month at noon on Thursday, March 26, in the Fireside Lounge of the Slep Student Center. This year’s theme is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.” The event is free and open to the public.Women leaders from the region will share how they are driving environmental, social and economic sustainability in their communities.Panelists include:

Evolutionary principles are essential for understanding how biological systems adapt and for predicting how they will respond to future selective pressures. By leveraging these principles, we gain a powerful predictive framework to tackle some of society's most urgent challenges, including conserving biodiversity, protecting endangered species, managing invasive organisms, combating emerging infectious and epizootic diseases, and advancing sustainable agriculture.

The Penn State Association of Water Students (PAWS) and the Penn State Water Council invite abstract submissions for the Penn State Water Conference 2026. Faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students from all institutions and backgrounds are invited to attend, participate in discussions, and present their research through oral and poster presentations.Abstract submission deadline: February 27

Prepare PA will host four regional network meetings across Pennsylvania in March and April, bringing together current and prospective members of the PA Climate Network to help shape the direction and goals of the statewide initiative.

The 13th annual Penn State Berks Losoncy Lecture in Physics and Astronomy will be presented by Leah G. Dodson, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Maryland. Dodson will present “The Quantum Identity Crisis of Molecular Hydrogen: Why the Simplest Molecule Isn’t So Simple” on Wednesday, March 25. A reception will begin at 4 p.m. in the college’s Perkins Student Center Multipurpose Room and the lecture begins at 4:45 p.m. in the Perkins Student Center Auditorium. This event is free and open to the public.

Global warming from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions presents by far the clearest signal of human influence on climate. But on top of greenhouse warming and its many impacts, anthropogenic and natural short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) drive their own important and complex climate-change signals. SLCFs include atmospheric aerosol particulates (sulphate haze, dust, sea-salt) and reactive chemical species (methane, ozone, nitrogen oxides, etc.) that have lifetimes and mixing length scales orders of magnitude shorter than carbon-dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

This paper estimates the causal effect of Berkeley’s sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax on beer purchases and prices using retail scanner data from 2014–2015. Applying both synthetic control and difference-in-differences (DID) approaches, we find that the tax reduced beer purchases within Berkeley by 8.9%, while having a negligible effect on beer prices. Mechanism analysis indicates that the decline in beer sales is driven primarily by cross-border shopping rather than a reduction in overall beer consumption.Bio

Ethan Tapper is an experienced forester and author of the bestselling book How to Love a Forest. He is successfully remediating problems such as invasive species in a 175-acre forest he named Bear Island in Vermont.Tapper will visit Penn State on March 23 and 24 for a keynote talk, conversations with Penn State classes and groups, and a book reading.His keynote is on Tuesday, March 24, at 4 pm in Kern 112 (and online) and is free and open to all. Pre-registration is required for online attendance.

What if we could build a living digital twin of the human heart—one that learns from data and guides personalized care in real time? This talk will introduce a new network approach for digital twinning of the human heart. Digital twin provides a virtual representation of cardiac dynamics in cyberspace, while simulation analytics in cyberspace distill actionable insights and optimize decision-making. We are building an open, extensible platform—and invite collaborators across disciplines to help shape the future of precision cardiology.

The Spirit of Chocolate Project is a collaboration that blends art, history, and science to tell the 5,000-year story of cacao, its origins with Indigenous communities of the Amazon, its cultural meaning, and its connection to today’s farmers. Drawing on Penn State’s long legacy in cacao and chocolate research, the multimedia project uses visual art, a replica of an ancient cacao vessel, interviews, and even a living cacao tree to invite viewers into the world behind chocolate.

The AI & Data Infrastructures Learning Lab (AIDILL) will be leading this seminar titled ‘Examining Public Concerns About PA Data Centers’. The AIDILL team is comprised of Co-PI’s Dr. Natalie Rae and Dylan Paré and Graduate Students Jusil Lee and Chris Reeves.In this talk, the team will share preliminary findings from an ongoing case study examining how residents engage with and articulate civic concerns around new data center proposals for AI technologies. 

The Geochemistry Forum hosts Isabel Fendley, presenting on "Crustal bottlenecks in volcanic degassing: How much carbon do volcanoes actually emit?"

2026 Women Advancing River Research Seminar SeriesClimate Impacts on Weathering and FlowSara Warix, University of Utah, United StatesJennifer McIntosh, University of Arizona, United States

Phillip Christopher earned his B.S. in chemical engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2006 and his M.S and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from University of Michigan in 2011 working with Prof. Suljo Linic. From 2011-2017 he was an Assistant Professor at University of California, Riverside. In 2017 he moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara where he is a Professor and Vice Chair for Undergraduate Affairs in the Chemical Engineering Department.

On March 18-19, the 2026 PHRC Housing Conference highlights best practices, regulation, and innovation in the housing industry. Invited speakers present on a wide-range of topics, including codes & construction, high-performance housing, weatherization & building science, and land development & planning.

The Pennsylvania Housing Research Center is hosting the 8th Residential Building Design & Construction Conference (RBDCC) in person on March 18-19, 2026 at The Penn Stater Hotel & Conference Center in State College, Pennsylvania. It provides a forum for researchers, design professionals, product manufacturers, builders, developers, and more to discuss opportunities and challenges to advance the quality of and to introduce innovations in residential construction.