Penn State is working to develop a university-wide program for sustainability education. Part of an effort to create an interdisciplinary school structure within the Provost's office, sustainability is the first pilot. Development of this pilot is being co-led by Lee Kump, Dean of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and Lara Fowler, Penn State's Chief Sustainability Officer.
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.
Join SAFES in person for this event to learn more about the SAFES institute, how it can help advance your research program, and enjoy some time to network with colleagues!
Hors d'oeuvres and non-alcoholic beverages provided.
Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) is a popular way to mitigate stormwater and provide other ecosystem services. Implementing GSI at the required scale is challenging due to its decentralized nature. This talk will discuss policy considerations for implementing decentralized GSI.
Who is this for?
Anyone interested in water resources
Those who work in the water field
Those who have a general interest in water
What will you learn?
C-CHANGE Grass2Gas: Profitability of Mixed Feedstock Anaerobic Digesters will explore new opportunities for improving the performance and profitability of anaerobic digesters based on new research findings coming out of the C-CHANGE grass-to-gas program.
Who is this for?
Farmers
Developers
Energy Industry Members
What will you learn?
New opportunities for improving the performance of anaerobic digesters
New opportunities for improving the profitability of anaerobic digesters
The Office of Postdoctoral Affairs announces the 16th annual postdoctoral research symposium showcasing the exceptional talents of postdoctoral researchers through engaging short talks and posters. Postdoctoral research highlights will be complemented by guest speakers addressing topics such as collaboration, digital presence management, and machine learning (advanced uses of ChatGPT for scientists). Substantial time has been allocated for networking, fostering invaluable professional connections. Complimentary breakfast and lunch to all who register by Monday, November 27.
On December 7 from 5 to 7 p.m., the Campus and Community Sustainability Expo will once again be co-hosted by State College Borough and Penn State Sustainability. The Expo is a showcase of student projects facilitated by the Sustainable Communities Collaborative in partnership with Pennsylvania communities. This semester, classes representing the colleges of Arts and Architecture, Agriculture, Liberal Arts, Smeal Business, and Earth and Mineral Sciences, as well as Penn State Commonwealth campuses Brandywine, Altoona, and Hazleton will present their work in this poster exposition.
Dr. Bharat Sharma Acharya is the Research Director of the Rodale Institute Southeast Organic Center, Chattahoochee Hills, GA. His research interests encompass a range of critical areas, including organic farming, regenerative agriculture, hydrology and water quality, irrigation systems, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Sharma’s primary focus is on the interactions between plant, soil, and water, with particular emphasis on soil health, cover crops, agricultural sustainability, and environmental stewardship.
The inspiring diversity of presenters and attendees are the secret sauce that have made the Millennium Café THE premier on-campus interdisciplinary mixer for over 11 years. In the spirit of this mixing, the Café will host a “pop-up” connect-with-community event on 12/5 from 10-11a in the 3rd floor Café Commons of the MSC. Stop by to learn about how you can expand your community connections — and enjoy stellar coffee. We have an amazingly diverse collection of organizations interested in helping get you CONNECTED!
Cross-border electricity interconnections are on the rise, especially in Europe, but increased international electricity trade can introduce the threat of electricity coercion. Russia’s repeated attacks on the electricity system of Ukraine have raised the level of concern about this new geopolitical energy challenge. The stakes will be high as the world moves to a more electrified world.
Join Penn State Extension Specialists and Educators for an informative four-session workshop on Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management. This workshop aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals that underpin effective farming practices and soil health.
Event Details
This highly interactive workshop, led by Spud Marshall, will bring together faculty, staff, and local nonprofit leaders with domain knowledge in the focus areas of agriculture and environmental sustainability. Join us for an evening of food, fun, and AI.
It's no secret lawns don’t provide the same environmental benefits as forests or meadows. But anyone who cares for a lawn can reduce the stormwater runoff and pollution it produces by using the "water-friendly" strategies covered in this session, including lawn downsizing, fine-tuned fertilizing, masterful mowing, circumventing soil compaction, and perfect pest management.
Who is this for?
This webinar series is for anyone who owns or manages residential property, including:
The goal of this conversation is to expose students to various themes of environmental justice that you may not have known about before, with the intention of self-reflection on the intersections of environmental justice in your own studies and fields. In hearing from impressive faculty from around campus, students and community members will develop tools and passions for identifying and addressing environmental injustices.
Water scarcity, defined as a lack of quantity and non-optimal water quality, is a reality worldwide. This global water crisis urges us to identify new water sources. The use of reclaimed water is not a vision but a reality. The use of reclaimed water presents us with the challenge of how to manage the water balance by calculating sources and uses and managing the quality of reclaimed water to meet needs.
Yanhong Jin estimates the impact of childhood obesity on intergenerational income and social mobility in the US. Utilizing the polygenic scores of Add Health participants, she proposes a novel instrument variable for childhood obesity based on genetic information related to weight status. Dr. Jin finds strong evidence that childhood obesity lowers intergenerational income and social mobility of adult children.
Our landscaping choices can provide us with recreational use and aesthetic enjoyment, but our choices can also have ecological benefits and impacts on stormwater runoff. Multi-acre meadows to quarter-acre mini-meadows full of native plants are recognized stormwater best management practices (BMPs), providing many benefits. Residential Stormwater Solutions: Backyard Meadows will cover some of the benefits and basics of installation and maintenance options to help you determine if a backyard meadow might work on your property, whether it be large or small.
Understanding the processes influencing the formation and maintenance of species is a central goal of evolutionary biology and crucial to species management in a rapidly changing environment. As such, hybridization and hybrid formation have long been of interest, and recent advances in population-scale genome sequencing have revolutionized our understanding of the frequency and pervasiveness of hybridization in nature.
Rain gardens are a stormwater best management practice (BMP) designed as shallow depressions that collect, absorb, and filter stormwater. A rain garden must be designed and installed with careful consideration, or more problems may arise. Participants will learn about the benefits, design, and maintenance of this important stormwater BMP.
Who is this for?
This webinar series is for anyone who owns or manages residential property, including:
Climate change is driving more frequent and severe hydroclimatic events that overlap with and exacerbate existing hazards. This workshop aims to engage multi-disciplinary researchers and practitioners in conversation about the future of interconnected hazards research. Special attention will be placed on the overlap of hydroclimatic change and earthquake hazard through the lens of the recent, unprecedented Cyclone Gabrielle, which caused ~NZ$8 billion in damage across Hawke’s Bay, Aotearoa New Zealand — a region with the largest seismic hazard in the country.
Who should attend?
Flooding is the most prominent natural disaster in Pennsylvania, with trends that include increasing size and frequency of flash floods as well as increasing uncertainty and associated challenges in prediction and flood warning. These conditions put at risk millions of people living in small and moderate-sized communities across the Commonwealth.