Past Events: Penn State Energy and Environment Calendar Archive

Agenda: “Confronting Ethical Challenges in a High Tech World” 1:00 pm – Distinguished Lecture by Dr. Mehran Sahami 2:00 pm – Live Panel Discussion with PSU Faculty 2:30 pm – CIE Virtual Headset Demonstrations & Networking Talk Abstract:

Hard water is one of Pennsylvania's most common water quality complaints; many people install treatment equipment to "soften" their water. But is this treatment always necessary, and could there be any benefits to having some hardness in our drinking water? Join Water Webinar Series: Hard Water Causes and Treatments to learn more. About the Series

We estimate an equilibrium sorting model of housing location and commuting mode choice with endogenous traffic congestion to evaluate the efficiency and equity impacts of a menu of urban transportation policies.  Leveraging fine-scale data from household travel diaries and housing transaction data identifying residents’ home and work locations in Beijing, we recover structural estimates with rich preference heterogeneity over both travel mode and residential location decisions.

Geosciences Colloquium Speaker Series The importance of hydrogen in Earth's formation and evolution presented by Anat Shahar, Carnegie Science Host: Brad Foley

Learn about the possible opportunities to use the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework tool for identifying conservation techniques in the areas on the landscape where they will make the most significant water quality impact. Water Cooler Talk: Pinpointing Nonpoint Source Pollution will discuss the potential opportunities to use the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework tool for placing conservation practices in the areas on the landscape where they will make the most significant water quality impact.

With the advent of large-scale biobanks, there are multiple “layers” of big data available (e.g., genomics, imaging, electronic health records). What are the most effective ways of integrating these layers to understand patterns among human diseases, especially when not all layers are measured on the same set of samples? Can we use the information gleaned to better predict risk of disease?  

Tens of thousands of organisms, from insects to nematodes to fungi, are capable of coercing plants into producing novel structures called "galls." Galls serve as a source of nourishment for the inducer, while also protecting it from environmental and biotic threats. This talk will showcase the almost unbelievable complexity and diversity of these galls, while also presenting myriad unanswered questions about their structure and function.

We now live in the golden age of solar system exploration. With a dozen NASA missions currently in development — as well as spacecraft actively on Mars, near Jupiter, and in the Kuiper belt — the current scale of mission activity is unprecedented and brings forth a new era of comparative study of varied worlds at the systems level.

The Penn State Eberly College of Science Sustainability Council has announced that the 2023 Sustainability Expo will be held Monday, April 24, from 1 to 6 p.m. at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. This free event, open to the public, will focus on sustainability efforts at Penn State and feature a student research poster competition (with cash prizes), nature walks, and guest speakers, as well as a special presentation by Eberly College of Science Sustainability Council Chair Charles Anderson.

Speaker: Adam Benfield, Penn State Series: Geochemistry Forum

Come celebrate Earth Day with us and enjoy… A viewing of the documentary clip "A Century After Nanook" Lightning talks from the EESI Environmental Scholars Graduate / postdoc poster session Community and refreshments!

The fields of bioenergy and biorenewables have seen and continue to experience unprecedented growth, as the world seeks to shift its economy to a sustainable, renewable basis. Penn State's Center for Biorenewables works to catalyze this transformation through innovation and education relating to biorenewable food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, materials, and energy.

The fields of bioenergy and biorenewables have seen and continue to experience unprecedented growth, as the world seeks to shift its economy to a sustainable, renewable basis. Penn State's Center for Biorenewables works to catalyze this transformation through innovation and education relating to biorenewable food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, materials, and energy.

Urban watersheds combine hydrologic flowpaths to streams and rivers that are common in less anthropogenically-altered systems with infrastructure-mediated flowpaths. Despite frequently being framed as more ‘homogeneous’ watersheds, this alteration changes the timing, magnitude, and quality of flow in urban streams in ways that can vary across scale and across locations.

By some estimates as many 1 species per hour is now going extinct. Even at the low range of estimates, we are likely to lose 25% of all species on the planet in the next 75 years–qualifying as the sixth great wave of extinction of life in Earth’s history and the first one perpetuated by one species, humans, against all others. But humans don’t have to be the villain in this story–we can also be the heroes. And worldwide there are thousands of heroes working every day to save the species and the planet on which they live, dedicating their lives in service of other species.

The complex boundary layer cloud system over the Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) exerts significant impacts on the global and regional radiation budget.  Observed cloudiness over the ENA has been decreasing over the past twenty years consistent with CMIP5 simulations, but the underlying processes associated with these changes involve complicated feedbacks that often blur causality.  Boundary layer cloudiness over the ENA undergoes a complicated life cycle that includes a morphological transition from stratocumulus to cumulus in response to rising sea surface temperatures and reduced subsidence

For the past decade, Chris Waldron has served as the Director of Sustainability for Camden County, NJ – the first position of its kind in the state.  Chris completed the B.S in Wildlife and Fisheries Science at Penn State in 1995. After graduation, he worked at the Philadelphia Zoo for 18 years as a zookeeper, primate and carnivore curator, and Director of Sustainability. He also was able to spend time in Kenya and Botswana working with African lion and wild dog researchers, and in Churchill, Manitoba, with Polar Bears International on a polar bear research project.

Those “forever chemicals” you may be hearing about are Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, more commonly known as PFAS. They persist in our environment and are linked to long-lasting impacts on fish, other wildlife, and human health. 

The AIMI Workshop brings together Penn State researchers, industry representatives, and investors to share ideas on bringing innovations in artificial intelligence and machine learning to the marketplace. Get inspired, find answers to your questions, and make invaluable connections. Registration is free, and a light breakfast and box lunch will be provided. Please register before 4:00 p.m. Monday, April 10.

Geosciences Colloquium Speaker Series Diamonds light up Earth's interior presented by Graham Pearson, University of Alberta Host: Jesse Reimink