Past Events: Penn State Energy and Environment Calendar Archive

first community conversation focused on the Musser Gap to Valleylands project

At the molecular level, the survival of organisms depends upon the precise control of gene expression. Understanding the control of gene expression is a fundamental problem in Biology with numerous practical applications. One important way in which gene expression is controlled is via small regulatory RNAs. Small RNAs function to bring various protein complexes into proximity with targeted messenger RNAs, with the typical consequence repression of the target gene's expression.

Sridhar Anandakrishnan has returned from his research trip to Antarctica, where he conducted research on two glaciers: Rutford Ice Stream and Thwaites Glacier. Sridhar will share photos and stories from his time down south, along with the science goals for this season. “Seals and Skua and Penguins, Oh My!” Sridhar Anandakrishnan, Professor of Geosciences Wednesday, February 6th, 7:00 pm Elk Creek Cafe and Aleworks, 100 Main St, Millehim PA

Many principles underlying the design of restructured electricity markets that are in-use today were developed over three decades ago when power systems were considerably different than today’s and tomorrow’s systems are. Systems of the past typically relied on large dispatchable thermal generators to supply energy. This can be contrasted with power systems today, which are experiencing rising penetrations of weather-dependent renewable energy sources that have limited dispatchability.

Impacts to water quality from excess nutrients and sediment are among the most complex and pervasive environmental problems faced today, not only in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania but across the nation and the globe. In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Pennsylvania is faced with finding a path forward to meet requirements of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for nutrients and sediment.

The evolution of high-crowned cheek teeth (hypsodonty) in herbivorous mammals during the late Cenozoic is classically regarded as an adaptive response to the near-global spread of grass-dominated habitats. Precocious hypsodonty in middle Eocene (B38 million years (Myr) ago) faunas from Patagonia, South America, is therefore thought to signal Earth’s first grasslands, 20 million years earlier than elsewhere.

Upland catchments are important drinking water source areas in Ireland, representing areas with lower potential for contamination and, therefore, treatment costs. However, in recent years, issues with the selective herbicide, 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA), and exceedances of the EU Drinking Water limit (0.1 µg L-1) in the raw surface water supply, have become a concern.

CIDD lunch Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics Jason Rasgon, Penn State February 4, 2019 @ 12:00 pm to 01:00 pm W-201 Millennium Science Complex University Park

The goal of this presentation is to introduce a Science to Solutions activity at Arizona State University (ASU). ASU’s new Knowledge Exchange for Resilience (KER) aims to build capacity both within the university and to broader civil society to address real, current issues of community resilience. We conceptualize community resilience in broad terms, that is: in terms of people responding to profound social, economic, and environmental change.

The Alcantara Space Center (ASC), located at a coastal site near the Equator, is the Brazilian gate to space. From this range, the Brazilian rockets are launched (for orbital or suborbital missions) and during their launching operations, some meteorological information is needed in order to guarantee safe flights.

Presented by Karen Fisher-Vanden: The interactions between energy, water, and land systems are poorly understood, yet have important implications for food security, reliability of electric power supply, demographic patterns, and the resilience of communities and critical infrastructure. Doing this type of work requires working on multidisciplinary teams and coupling a variety of tools including statistical tools, data products, and computational models.

Penn State Evan Pugh Professor Richard Alley presents Geosciences Colloquium Talk “Collapsing Cliffs and Rising Seas – New Insights form Penn State’s Ice and Climate Explorations (PSICE)” on Tuesday, January 29th, at 4 PM in 022 Deike. A Speaker’s Coffee & Cookies Reception will precede the talk at 3:45 PM in the EMS Museum on the ground floor of Deike.

A part of the Water Insights Seminar series. Karen Fisher-Vanden, Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education, Penn State

Learn from leading researchers about the most recent science on the environmental contributors to cancer, and patterns of disease. Join scientists, health professionals and community leaders in identifying the most promising steps for limiting environmental carcinogens in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Build relationships across organizations that have a role to play in advancing comprehensive cancer prevention via research, practice, and policy. 


Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics Peter Hudson, Penn State January 28, 2019 @ 07:00 pm to 08:00 pm Lipcon Auditorium, Palmer Museum of Art University Park

The institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE) will be hosting a meeting with Government and Community Relations at 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 28 in 233 HUB-Robeson Center. The focus of the meeting will be learning about how faculty members and researchers can engage in policy as experts. Additionally, Government and Community Relations will share about their presence at the federal, state and local levels of government. Please register here: http://www.iee.psu.edu/gov-community-relations

Nearly fifty years ago, Lovelock and Margulis proposed that environmental conditions on Earth are regulated through interactions with the biota. Where does this “Gaia Hypothesis” now stand? Do these interactions increase biospheric resilience? On geologic timescales? On human time scales? These questions will be explored with examples from my research and collaboration with Lovelock. Lee Kump | Dean, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences

A forum focused on the University’s Strategic Plan and one of its thematic priorities, Stewarding Our Planet’s Resources, will be held at 9 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 21, in Heritage Hall, HUB-Robeson Center. The purpose of the forum is to provide updates on Stewarding Our Planet’s Resources as well as seek input on the direction and focus of the priority.

There is a growing torrent of geospatial data on ecosystems, species, and threats from a variety of remote sensing, GIS, mobile and cloud platforms. However, we need a standard framework for converting these big data into meaningful, useful and actionable information for decision-makers.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has been a leader in many areas of atmospheric science for applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to environmental science problems. The research in AI at NCAR began in the 1990’s, first from advanced applications of combined statistical methods, expert systems, and genetic algorithms to the full complexity of modern AI including machine learning and deep learning.