The ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit is where energy innovators Forge the Future and outlier energy ideas are brought to life. The Summit brings together energy scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs, engineers, and industry visionaries who dare to disrupt the status quo. The 2024 Summit in Dallas featured dynamic programming with thought leadership from industry leaders, groundbreaking energy advancements, and opportunities to scale technology from lab to market.
Past Events: Penn State Energy and Environment Calendar Archive
You're viewing an archived collection of past energy and environment events from around Penn State and beyond. Please visit our Event Calendar to view current and upcoming events.
Learn water-friendly lawn care strategies to reduce runoff, improve soil health, and protect local water quality. Managing stormwater runoff is a critical responsibility for anyone who cares for property, particularly in Pennsylvania's diverse landscapes. Unlike forests and meadows, traditional lawns offer limited environmental benefits and can contribute to runoff and pollution.
Community members are invited to attend an event at Penn State Great Valley on Saturday, March 8, at 5 p.m. to discuss the power of trees to save lives and provide for the future.
Transform your lawn into a stormwater-friendly meadow! Learn how native plants reduce runoff, improve soil health, and support wildlife with practical tips on planning, installation, and maintenance.
We discuss how process systems engineering (PSE) studies can facilitate the development of novel strategies for the production of renewable fuels and chemicals. Importantly, we show how PSE can be used to identify technological and economic drivers, and, ultimately, guide future research efforts. After an overview of the methods used for these studies, we discuss the synthesis and analysis of three broad classes of strategies: (1) biomass-to-fuels/chemicals systems; (2) systems that employ solar energy for power and fuels generation; and (3) electrified processes.
Sefi Roth, associate professor of environmental economics in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, will give the talk, “Making the invisible visible: The impact of revealing indoor air pollution on behavior and welfare,” at noon on Wednesday, March 5, in 515 Welch Building on the University Park campus.
Plastic—the most important material of our time—has become absolutely indispensable in modern life. It is valued for its affordability, versatility, and low energy consumption compared to analogs. However, multiple incentives drive plastic deployment in short-lived applications, such as single-use packaging, leading to massive waste accumulation in landfills and plastic breakthrough into the environment. Continuing acceleration of plastic production without a better end-of-life management strategy will result in unprecedented levels of plastic pollution by the mid-century.
Learn practical stormwater solutions for your property, including rain barrels, cisterns, rain gardens, and runoff-reducing lawn care, in this free webinar.
Immediately following the Millenium Café will be an opportunity to come and learn what it means to become a nationally certified research lab and consider applying to join the 2025-2026 cohort. The implementation of improved lab operations results in less waste, greater efficiency, professional skill development, dollar savings, and much more!
More than 100 communities in Pennsylvania critically depend on levees for flood safety. Levee infrastructure needs to adapt to changing flood conditions, but most communities lack the resources to do so. We are developing transdisciplinary approaches to address this nationwide challenge which involve scholars, government officials, and practitioners. This talk will focus on the unintended impacts and hidden costs of levees—a new dimension of the challenge that needs recognition to make sustainable progress.
Glass has been a cornerstone of architecture for centuries, from the windows of cozy homes to the façades of towering skyscrapers. Yet, the way we manufacture it has remained largely the same: an energy-intensive process that pumps out tons of CO₂ every year due to high melting temperatures and ingredients that release additional CO₂ upon decomposition. Enter LionGlass™: a revolutionary glass family developed by our Glass Research Lab at Penn State.
Public-facing museums have been part of teaching and training at Penn State since 1855. Over time, the format footprint and focus of museum organizations—across campus—has evolved. The 21st-century museum is multi-faceted. As a repository of data, samples and specimens, it vouchers research that occurred in the past for future generations. In the present, it connects to communities through exhibits, programs, and public-facing resources as a trusted source of information.
You are invited to the IEE Equitable Communities and the Built Environment Community Circle on March 3, from 3:30 to 5:00 PM, at the HUB-Robeson Center – Heritage Hall, University Park.This Community Circle provides an inclusive and supportive space for sharing experiences, fostering connections, and collaboratively navigating the research challenges of today's evolving landscape. Together, we will explore how to sensitively and strategically co-design with communities while continuing our work.
The Stuckeman School is excited to announce a groundbreaking research symposium titled “Biophilia: Designing for Animals.” This event will explore the critical role of animals in design and how our built and natural environments are shaped by more-than-human participants.
The Stuckeman School is excited to announce a groundbreaking research symposium titled “Biophilia: Designing for Animals.” This event will explore the critical role of animals in design and how our built and natural environments are shaped by more-than-human participants.
The U.S. premiere of A Century After Nanook.A Century After Nanook is an ambitious documentary focused on the drastic environmental and cultural changes that have occurred over the last 100 years in the Inuit village of Inukjuak, the location where Robert Flaherty filmed Nanook of the North from 1920-1921. From the recording of interviews to filming daily life, much of this documentary was produced by members of the community – making it truly a collaborative project.
Electronics built with semiconductor technologies —vtransistors and integrated circuits — have had tremendous societal impact in the past decades. The advent of the quantum era, however, requires the development of new materials and paradigms. This is because the preservation of quantum coherence and quantum entanglement is essential to the operation of quantum devices, and classical scaling solutions, such as the copper interconnect layers used in any integrated circuit, no longer work.
A remarkable feature of modern integrated circuit technology is its ability to operate in a stable fashion, almost indefinitely, without physical or chemical change. Recently developed classes of electronic materials and manufacturing approaches create an opportunity to engineer the opposite outcome, in the form of ‘transient’ devices that dissolve, disintegrate, degrade or otherwise physically disappear at triggered times or with controlled rates. Water-soluble transient electronic devices serve as the foundations for applications in zero-impact environmental monitors, 'green'
The Penn State Climate Consortium’s February Climate Conversations Café will feature Inuit leaders who will discuss the challenges of a rapidly changing Arctic.
Please join the Department of Entomology as they host Emilie Snell-Rood from the University of Minnesota as she presents on their research titled "Variation in pollutant exposure and tolerance across butterflies and bees: implications for conservation in pockets of urban habitat."