Past Events: Penn State Energy and Environment Calendar Archive

Guido Cervone will present Expanded Dimensionality Image Spectroscopy via Deep Learning

This is an informational webinar that is intended to provide details on the 2019 Seed Grant Program as well as answer questions. The webinar will also be recorded and the link sent out via email. It will also be on the seed grant webpage http://www.iee.psu.edu/seedgrant/2019  Join URL: https://psu.zoom.us/j/495900046 Or dial: 1-646-876-9923 (US Toll) Meeting ID: 495 900 046

Mexican per capita consumption of bottled water is highest in the world. Part of the reason is that many cities lack potable tap water. Yet, even in Mexican cities where tap water is quality is high, it tends to be underutilized. Could advertising water quality increase tap water consumption? Does it matter who provides the information? To answer these questions, we conducted a randomized controlled trial in eight of Mexico City’s most important enclosed parks, placing large posters with information about tap water quality next to water fountains.

Luke Trusel, Geography, Penn State, will present The Greenland Ice Sheet in a Warming World

Dr. Taylor Ricketts research centers on the overarching question: How do we meet the needs of people and nature in an increasingly crowded, changing world? His recent work has focused on the economic and health benefits provided to people by forests, wetlands, reefs, and other natural areas.

​Kimberly Lau, University of Wyoming, to present Tracking Anoxia in Ancient Oceans: Insights from uranium isotopes

H.E. Dirk Wouters, ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium to the United States, will talk about “city diplomacy” in relation to high-performance buildings, energy, and carbon. He will explore the impact of Brussels, Belgium on other cities such as Vancouver, Canada, and Washington, D.C. He will place that discussion in the context of the history of the European Union as well as international energy policy. Finally, he will discuss possibilities for cooperation and collaboration among universities around the world on high-performance buildings.

The Chesapeake Bay jurisdictions have just completed Phase 3 Watershed Implementation Plans (Phase 3 WIPs) to meet the goals of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). In Pennsylvania, this two-year long planning process involved an unprecedented amount of public participation and partnership collaboration. From the beginning, the importance of collaboration and engagement at the local level was recognized as critical to the successful implementation of the Phase 3 WIP and meeting both local water quality and Chesapeake Bay nutrient pollution reduction goals.

Speciation, the evolutionary process by which new species originate, is responsible for the amazing diversity we see in nature. Despite decades of active research many fundamental questions remain unresolved, partly due to the challenges in understanding a process that can take tens of thousands of years to complete. Therefore, one of the most direct ways to gain insights into speciation is to study populations that are in the act of becoming new species.

Architects are increasingly aware of the need to advance the design of buildings to rapidly reduce CO2 emissions. The primary question is how do we do this when each building is unique and architects are rarely trained to conduct needed research. Research-based design, conducting university-led laboratory simulations or post-occupancy analysis of high-performance buildings and applying this research to projects currently under design through collaboration with professional practice, is one path forward.

Phosphorus is a finite resource estimated to run out in less than 300 years. Research shows more than 90% is lost from mine-to-fork and this inefficient use contributes to eutrophication that is devastating freshwater resources globally. Our research and commercialization efforts focus on capturing and recycling phosphorus to promote a more sustainable future for this vital nutrient.

Tom Richard, Director, Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, Penn State will present "Deep Re-carbonization: Harnessing Photosynthesis for Negative Emissions" as a part of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute's Earthtalks series.

Should nuclear power be used as a part of the energy mix to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and what factors should be considered in that decision? Those questions will inform the topic "The Future of Nuclear Energy," a presentation sponsored by the State College chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby. The speakers will be Arthur T. Motta, professor of nuclear engineering at Penn State, and David J. Allard, director of the Bureau of Radiation Protection at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Creating long-term integrated water resources plans is a challenging problem, where planning alternatives are characterized by multiple, conflicting objectives such as lowering cost while maintaining high performance. Such systems also exhibit deep uncertainty (situations in which stakeholders do not know or cannot agree on the likelihood of perturbations to the system) due to climate change, land use, and population growth.

Geochemistry Forum: Calorimetric and Solubility Studies of Uranium Minerals and Nano-clusters, presented by Dr. Melika Sharifi, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Penn State

Andrew Anderson, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage

Tom Richard, Professor of Agricultural & Biological Engineering; Director, Penn State Institutes for Energy & the Environment; Bioenergy & Bioresource Engineering, Penn State

When it comes to our understanding of tropical motion systems and tropical precipitation, the last two decades have been characterized by fast advances. Yet our conceptual understanding of tropical motions remains incomplete. Here I present a conceptual framework that may provide insight into the nature of tropical motion systems and the mechanics of convective coupling.

Dr. Casey Wichman, Research Director, Energy and Environment Lab, University of Chicago

Department of Geosciences Colloquium Series: Non-traditional tracers of Earth's O2 history, presented by Chadlin Ostrander, Arizona State University