Past Events: Penn State Energy and Environment Calendar Archive

Ray Najjar, Professor of Oceanography, Departments of Meteorology and Geosciences, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Penn State University   

With advances in computational science, researchers are finding new solutions to major societal problems. This one-day conference, hosted by the Institute for CyberScience at Penn State, will focus on innovative computational research across a diverse set of disciplines. Come hear nationally renowned speakers and be part of the discussion. Faculty, graduate students, industry, and representatives of funding agencies are welcome to attend. The symposium aims to connect researchers to potential industry partners, funding agencies, and collaborators.

Using fossil records to gain perspective on how species respond to environmental change​

Innovation is a process that encompasses and eclipses engineering practice to more comprehensively include skillsets from anthropology, economics, and business. It is challenging, however, within our academic career paths to identify opportunities to apply that process in earnest. This talk will demonstrate opportunities for innovation with global impact by first applying engineeringethnography for rapid user needs assessment and problem curation, and then move into four synergistic project areas that connect user insights to technical research and delivered product.

The specter of overpowering hurricanes, sea level rise, and coastal flooding is raising a great deal of fear along America’s coastlines. But what is the appropriate public policy response? This paper uses a simple economic model to determine what coastal protection makes sense given current threats. The empirical analysis reveals that a large fraction of America’s coastline is in need of formal protection because of existing storm risk.

San Antonio is home to a rapidly urbanizing population, with major agricultural activity surrounding the city, and a growing production of oil and natural gas in its underlying Eagle Ford shale play. The region of San Antonio represents a resource hotspot whose stakeholders compete across sectors for the same limited water, land, and financial resources and whose projection trends indicate continued growth across those sectors.

Presenter: Shirley Clark, Professor of Environmental Engineering, School of Science, Engineering, and Technology

The challenge of meeting increasing water, energy, and food needs is linked not only to growing demands globally, but also to the tight interdependence of these interconnected resource systems. Proposed interventions to address these challenges must be multi-faceted and need to acknowledge the multiple dimensions of the biophysical water, energy, and food systems, as well as the multi-sectoral actors connected with them. Whether policy, technological, or social interventions are considered, these need to be localized and contextualized.

If you are interested in sustainability, solar energy and storage, building energy efficiency, and/or global community development and want to support meaningful project-based learning experiences for students, faculty and PSU partners, please consider joining us for a two-hour event on March 25th from 4:00-6:00 PM at the Land and Water Building

Join the American Institute of Biological Sciences on March 25-27 for our annual Congressional Visits Day in Washington, DC. Please note that the dates for the program have changed from March 18-20 to March 25-27, 2019. Meet with your members of Congress to help them understand the important role the federal government plays in supporting the biological sciences. Advocate for federal investments in biological sciences research supported by the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies.

WaterHackWeek is a 5-day hackweek to be held at the University of Washington in partnership with the University of Washington eScience Institute. Participants will learn about open source technologies used to analyze water-related datasets. Mornings will consist of interactive lectures, and afternoon sessions will involve facilitated exploration of datasets and hands-on software development. Successful applicants will pay a $100 registration fee and be expected to cover lodging, travel expenses and some meals. Financial support may be available based on need.

A 2014 report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research ranked American cities according to residents’ “happiness”. The results have surprised many people. This brings to a question that is closely related to resilience and sustainability research: are the happiest cities also most resilient to disasters? The answer to the question relies on how we measure community resilience. However, despite the extensive literature on the topic, there is not yet a commonly adopted metric to assess resilience to disasters.

The Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE), in collaboration with the Center for Security Research and Education (CSRE), will be hosting a meeting to discuss PFAS and explore how Penn State can help address a critical issue. In addition, the meeting will be an opportunity to determine who at Penn State is working on PFAS in order to coordinate for potential future grant calls. Registration is requested.

Prices, which reflect the marginal value of a good or service, provide signals about scarcity and efficiency. A larger price generally signals greater scarcity.  Signals about efficiency are related to marginal benefit and marginal cost tradeoffs.  For instance, production is inefficiently low when a good’s price exceeds the marginal social cost of production, where these costs are society’s foregone benefits from pursuing the best alternative. 

Stroud is working with the PA No-Till Alliance and Steve Groff of Cover Crop Coaching to provide outreach, training, and mentoring/technical advising to producers who are transitioning to soil health focused farming systems. Additionally, Stroud staff are working with 2 individual producers to implement hundreds of acres of new cover crops and multi-species cover crops in the White Clay Creek Watershed where extensive long term monitoring is in place and positioned to evaluate watershed scale outcomes of the implementation.

Over the last few years Project Drawdown has used peer-reviewed research to assess the costs and impact of over 80 solutions to reverse global warming. This research has demonstrated that solutions exist, they are here today, and they have positive impacts beyond their climate benefits – a positive and hopeful message that has attracted attention worldwide. The portfolio of solutions is broad and sometimes surprising, including not just energy, buildings and transportation and energy but also chemicals and materials, food systems and land use, empowering women and educating girls.

In most watersheds, as withdrawals for human needs increase, the ecological services provided by the same water are in decline. At a certain point, the value of water provided for human use is equal to the value of the ecological services, and beyond this point, ecological disruptions exceed the benefits of increased water extraction; this point is referred to as “peak ecological water." In addition, the human and ecological benefits may occur at different spatial and temporal scales.

Understanding the behavioral outputs of complex signals between organisms Dr. Anne Leonard, University of Nevada, Reno March 15, 2019 @ 02:30 pm to 03:30 pm 133 Food Science Building University Park Ecology Spring Seminar Series 2019 “Behave like an Ecologist: Research Exploring Behavioral Ecology” Fridays 2:30-3:30

How Penn State faculty members and researchers can take advantage of a national consortium called the Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit Network will be the focus of a meeting hosted by the Institutes of Energy and the Environment. 10 a.m. Thursday, March 14 233B HUB-Robeson Center Please register for the meeting.

On behalf of the Institutes for Energy and the Environment and the Radiocarbon Laboratory of the Energy and Environmental Sustainability Laboratories, we would like to invite you to the Penn State Radiocarbon Dating Workshop. The workshop is aimed at current and potential users of radiocarbon measurement and dating in the historical and earth sciences. Active researchers of all levels of familiarity with radiocarbon work are encouraged to attend.