Digesters aren't only about animals and energy – they can profoundly impact cropping systems and the nutrient dynamics of our agricultural sector. Join C-CHANGE: Managing Digestate for Crop Production and the Environment to learn about new findings in this important area.
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.
Nature is a complex, interconnected system that supports all of life. Whether we live in the city or the countryside, natural systems support is real and significant. Natural system services provide millions of dollars every year in recreational revenues and avoid costs for governments, businesses, and residents. Nature’s benefits impact our quality of life, health, cost of living, sense of place, and economy. These benefits are reliably delivered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Once lost, these benefits are expensive and difficult to replace.
Hosted by Carnegie Mellon’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, CMU Energy Week 2024 will bring energy and sustainability leaders, including scholars, investors and entrepreneurs from across the nation to Carnegie Mellon University to combine forces and exchange ideas on the best paths to decarbonizing transportation.
CMU Energy Week 2024 discussions will interrogate problems and work toward constructing an ambitious vision to reimagine how we move things, move people and move equitably in our clean-energy future.
For many materials the direction (or orientation) of the crystal planes impacts the overall properties. The simplest example is the difference between a single-crystalline and polycrystalline sample. But even polycrystalline samples need not be completely random; some crystalline planes may preferentially align with certain directions. Such a sample is said to be oriented or textured.
Digital health is inherently data-driven. However, data itself is not adequate. Successful digital health applications require a human-centered approach that transforms data into user experience, empathy, and inclusivity. In this talk, I will focus on how to create digital health applications by integrating a human-centered and data-driven approach. I will also reflect on two ongoing digital health projects: creating supportive financial technologies for marginalized communities and using generative AI to provide personalized health interventions.
Hydrogen is the simplest molecule in the universe, yet efficient H2 activation, utilization and storage present considerable technological challenges that must be overcome if we are to realize the “green” energy transition. One such phenomenon is “H spillover”, in which H2 is adsorbed (usually on a metal) and then transferred to a metal oxide or carbon surface. Once off the metal, the H becomes highly mobile, scampering freely across the surface. We recently provided the first quantitative measures of H spillover, which leads to the surprising conclusion that spill
Hosted by Carnegie Mellon’s Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, CMU Energy Week 2024 will bring energy and sustainability leaders, including scholars, investors and entrepreneurs from across the nation to Carnegie Mellon University to combine forces and exchange ideas on the best paths to decarbonizing transportation.
CMU Energy Week 2024 discussions will interrogate problems and work toward constructing an ambitious vision to reimagine how we move things, move people and move equitably in our clean-energy future.
Rising global temperatures and the urban heat island effect can amplify heat-related health risks to urban residents. Cities are considering various heat adaptation actions to improve public health, enhance social equity, and cope with future conditions beyond past experience. We present the City-Heat Equity Adaptation Tool (City-HEAT), which suggests optimal investments for mitigating urban heat and reducing health impacts through modifications of built (cool roofs/pavements) and natural (urban afforestation) environments and reductions of people’s heat exposure (cooling centers).
Developmental transitions impact ecology and evolution by altering the way plants interact with their environment. Studies of germination and flowering show that developmental timing has significant impacts on plant fitness and performance, but very little attention has been given to the juvenile-to-adult transition: vegetative phase change. My research works to understand how the timing of vegetative phase change, and the developmental phase a plant is in when exposed to abiotic stress, impact the plant’s ability to respond to these stressors.
With the rise in forest carbon programs, the focus of some forest managers has shifted towards extending harvest rotations and focusing management on carbon sequestration at the cost of other considerations. During Having it All: Balancing Carbon, Forest Health, and Other Goals, participants will learn how forest managers can think about maintaining functioning forests while meeting multiple goals like storing carbon, creating wildlife habitat, and forest health.
Harvey J. Miller, professor of geography at Ohio State University, will give the talk "Mapping Columbus' Ghost Neighborhoods: Using AI and GIS to Create 3D Models of Neighborhoods Damaged by Urban Highways and Urban Renewal in the 20th Century" at the annual E. Willard and Ruby S. Miller Endowed Lecture at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, March 15.
Join your colleagues to share your work, learn, be inspired, and network across the Penn State Water Community. This event highlights the interdisciplinary nature of water-related research, education, communication, service, and outreach.
The conference will feature:
The EMS Energy Institute presents the 2024 Energy Xchange Seminar Series. This presentation will feature Erica Smithwick, Director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute and Distinguished Professor of Geography, with her presentation titled, "Penn State's Climate Consortium: Partnerships for People and the Planet". This event is free and parking is available at the Institute at 4 p.m.
Markus Drouven serves as the Technical Director of DOE’s 3-year, $5MM produced water optimization initiative, "Project PARETO". In 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy launched "Project PARETO". PARETO is designed to help organizations with produced water management (e.g., transport, treat, store, inject and/or reuse produced water from onshore oil & gas operations).
Join your colleagues to share your work, learn, be inspired, and network across the Penn State Water Community. This event highlights the interdisciplinary nature of water-related research, education, communication, service, and outreach.
The conference will feature:
Indigenous scholar Tiokasin Ghosthorse of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation, South Dakota, will explore Indigenous cosmology, intuitive ways of knowing, cultural etymologies, and the influence of language in relationships.
Campus and community members are invited to join the conversation on Mar. 13 at 7 p.m. in the HUB Flex Theatre or online via Zoom. Guests attending the in-person discussion will be invited to join a reception with refreshments and ongoing discussion.
Jean Yang, landscape designer, urban planner, and educator, joins the Stuckeman School's Lecture + Exhibit Series for a Department of Landscape Architecture Bracken Lecture.
Titled “Community in Landscapes,” Yang’s talk will discuss how humans create their built environment and how it, in turn, shapes them.
The State College Borough in partnership with Community Conferencing and the Center for Social Change and Belonging presents the first part of the Community Conversations Series of 2024 “Economic Injustice: Food Insecurity”. This conversation will be held on Tuesday, March 12, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the State Theatre in State College. The Panel Discussion will last 45 minutes followed by the Restorative Circle.
As cities look to fill their affordable housing gaps, 'Missing Teeth' or 'Infill' housing is gathering a lot of attention. Communities look for solutions that can be replicated over scattered sites in the neighborhood. The requirements not only include fitting the fabric of the neighborhood but also be a safe and healthy environment for its occupants. This session is focused on challenges of design and building urban infill housing using modular construction methods.
EDS in SEM is often used to map compositional information across length scales ranging from microns down to many nanometers and EDS in TEM can provide analogous information on the nanometer scale. However, it is often helpful to have information complementary to the elemental information attainable via EDS. The MCL has several techniques capable of providing information about chemical bonding, oxidation states, and chemical structure.