Past Events: Penn State Energy and Environment Calendar Archive

Stephanie Klein, Penn State University

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) are hosting a Mentoring Summit to be held at the Big Ten Conference Center and on individual BTAA campuses via satellite meetings. Penn State faculty, administrators, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students are invited to attend the Penn State satellite meeting to discuss how to foster culture change in mentoring excellence.

Of Bible, Bees, and Babbage: A historical and socio-technical look at data-centric biodiversity research Dr. Sharif Islam (Data Architect, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands)

Geochemistry Forum: Chemistry versus biology: Interpreting microbial signatures by Julie Cosmidis, Assistant Professor, Penn State

Many of the world’s greatest sustainability challenges require spatial data as part of the search for solutions. The Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) is one of 12 NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs). Unlike most DAACs, which distribute data from NASA’s remote sensing instruments, SEDAC develops and disseminates spatial and tabular data on the distribution of population, settlements, infrastructure, human wellbeing, and variables related to environmental sustainability.

Tropical forests and their role in food security: mapping patterns and change by Sarah Gergel, University of British Columbia */

When you have thousands of variables that you can select from to describe and predict whether active fracking is occurring, how do you choose? Random forests are a learning method that uses an ensemble of decision trees to build a predictive model. We’ll discuss how to make a random forest and how we used one to tell what measures from the microbiome and the sample site best predicted active fracking status. The talk is geared towards undergraduates and assumes little prior background in either statistics or biology. Presented by Kim Roth, Ph.D., Juniata College

The Ecology Institute will hold 3 separate planning meetings to promote dialogue and community consensus around the Institute's priority themes and activities. We will share survey results and identify both "big" and "little" ideas we could promote uniquely through our Institute. All are welcome! Thursday, February 13 from 12:30-2 p.m. in 519 Wartik Lab Tuesday, February 18 from 12:30-2 p.m. in W201 Millennium Science Complex Thursday, February 20 from 12:30-2 p.m. in 519 Wartik Lab Pizza and drinks will be provided.

Join us for an open house at the Organics Lab to learn about newly acquired instrumentation and new applications and capabilities. The Organics Lab is a shared core facility managed by the Energy and Environmental Sustainability Laboratories (EESL), equipped with high-resolution mass spectrometers with a wide range of capabilities to screen, characterize and quantify organic compounds in diverse matrices. Additionally, meet and network with colleagues and the EESL team, including Odette Mina, EESL Managing Director, and Sara Lincoln, Organics Laboratory Manager.

A wide variety of atmospheric lidars exist and a rare species is the scanning aerosol lidar. This seminar will describe a few generations of scanning aerosol lidars and their vices and virtues. The largest merit of scanning aerosol lidars is the ability to provide spatial imagery of boundary layer structure and evolution especially in critical regions such as the surface layer and the entrainment zone. When the scan update rate is sufficiently large, it is possible to deduce the motion of small aerosol features and derive vector wind fields.

The webinar will describe the Sugar Creek Method used by a team of social and natural scientists at The Ohio State University who teamed up with three teams of local farmers (one non-Amish German descent, one Amish, and one combined) and the local SWCDs, Ohio EPA, and a cheese factory to improve water quality. The presentation is divided into six sections: 1). Theoretical threads woven to create the method; 2). How the research and farm teams were formed; 3). Farmer values influencing our approach; 4). Grants and BMPs; 5). The Alpine Nutrient Trading Program; 6).

Sustainability Research Seminar and Luncheon Hosted by the Center for the Business of Sustainability with Dr. Jiro Yoshida, Associate Professor, Risk Management. Please RSVP to Megan Nollman (mrn14@psu.edu) by February 12th for the luncheon.  

Switching costs are generally regarded as anti-competitive as firms can raise prices to “locked-in” consumers, at least up to the cost of switching to a lower-priced alternative. However, there is some evidence, both theoretical and empirical, that tends to show the opposite. Namely, suppliers, anticipating the pool of rents potentially available, compete aggressively to acquire non-switching consumers.

Renewable energy technologies that produce biofuels and biochemicals profitably and cleanly are needed to replace existing fossil fuel consumption demands. One such technology receiving renewed interest is anaerobic digestion –the biodegradation of organic material for the production ofvalue-added chemicals and fuels like organic acids and biogas. This talk focuses on the study of anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic plant biomass, the various process parameters, and the microbial community involved in it.

The Ecology Institute will hold 3 separate planning meetings to promote dialogue and community consensus around the Institute's priority themes and activities. We will share survey results and identify both "big" and "little" ideas we could promote uniquely through our Institute. All are welcome! Thursday, February 13 from 12:30-2 p.m. in 519 Wartik Lab Tuesday, February 18 from 12:30-2 p.m. in W201 Millennium Science Complex Thursday, February 20 from 12:30-2 p.m. in 519 Wartik Lab Pizza and drinks will be provided.

Water Insights Seminar: Riparian Forest Buffers of the Susquehanna-Chesapeake Watershed: Observations, Assessments and Recommendations by Robert P. Brooks, Professor Emeritus, Geography & Ecology, Penn State & Tamie L. Veith, Agricultural Engineer, Agricultural Research Service, Penn State and hosted by Environment and Natural Resources Institute, College of Agricultural Sciences

The Spring 2020 EarthTalks series titled "Societal Problems, EESI Science towards Solutions" features Erica Smithwick presenting “Firescapes of the mid-Atlantic”

Due to the rapidly-evolving nature of viruses, host resistance to virus infection may be quickly overcome. In contrast, host tolerance allows for virus accumulation with little to no disease, is thought to be attributed to many genes, and may therefore provide more durable disease management. Although tolerance is common in wild ecosystems, the mechanisms behind virus tolerance in plant and insect systems remain poorly understood.

The next Water-Energy-Food Nexus Seminar will feature the presentation "Resilience of Cities to Food Supply Shocks" by Dr. Alfonso Mejia.

Geochemistry Forum: Sphalerite, groundwater and climate changes presented by Dr. Mingsong Li, Department of Geosciences, Penn State