Past Events: Penn State Energy and Environment Calendar Archive

The Sustainable Communities Collaborative (SCC) facilitates engaged scholarship projects as part of the outreach mission of the Sustainability Institute. The SCC connects Penn State faculty, students, and staff with local communities to address sustainability challenges through an engaged, collaborative effort.

This event is part of the Penn State EnvironMentors Spring 2022 Webinar Series aimed at introducing high school students to the EnvironMentors program. Presentation Construct: (i) Comments from Tom and Michelle (~20 minutes); (ii) High school students show off posters (~40 minutes); (iii) How to get involved in the future (~20 minutes); (iv) Thank everyone for coming and tell them we will send out award certificates shortly (~10 minutes)

For over half a century, radars have been the primary source of observational insights into clouds and precipitation microphysics and dynamics and contributed to numerous significant advancements in the field of cloud and precipitation physics. The basic architecture of atmospheric radars has changed little since it was first introduced after World War II.

Spring 2022 ESSC Brown Bag Series presents Dr. Pengfei Zhang, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, Penn State

Seeing is Believing:  Opportunities Enabled by in-situ Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) with Yang Yang and Biomaterials and Biofabrication: Making with Mycelia with Jenn Macalady.

Dr. Bettina L. Love is an award-winning author and the Athletic Association Endowed Professor at the University of Georgia. Her writing, research, teaching, and educational advocacy work meet at the intersection of education reform, anti-racism, carceral studies, abolition, and Black ​joy.

Join Clearwater Conservancy on April 23, 2022 for the 26th Annual Watershed Cleanup Day! Since 1997, thousands of volunteers have prevented more than 6 million pounds of trash from entering our local waterways. Hundreds of community members join this effort each year, and we look forward to working with everyone on April 23 to clean up local stream sides to create a healthier and more beautiful region for everyone! Please note we will be taking steps to comply with current CDC guidelines to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19.

Geochemistry Forum: The Geologic History of Seawater Rare Earth Elements Ben Barnes, Penn State

Join the College of Liberal Arts in a Q&A with David Roberts this Earth Day! Pre-registration is required.

Earth Day has been celebrated globally for more than 50 years and is dedicated to promoting awareness of the health of our environment. During 2022, the thematic focus will be on climate action and the Climate Alliance will participate by exploring the intersection of climate and work via a virtual student event.

Abstract: Soaring temperatures and increased frequency of heatwaves have changed the way many people use electricity, often leading to higher consumption during the summer months. This trend is likely to continue as climate change progresses and temperatures increase. In order to ensure our electricity grid is prepared for these changes, it is important to develop accurate predictive models that account for climate-induced shifts in demand.

In the pursuit of a sustainable future, the last decade has seen a concerted effort in accelerating the discovery of materials for energy needs, thanks to a large extent to the Materials Genome Initiative. In this talk I will focus on few 2-dimensional materials which have captured our imagination. As with graphene, another common lubricant, molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) shows remarkable optical properties when peeled off as single sheet. I will show how defects and dopants in single-layer MoS2 transform its electronic structure so that it turn into a catalyst for CO hydrogenation.

Current communication channels for presenting scientific research have expanded and understanding how to effectively address each outlet can be challenging. Traditional academic research conferences and grant applications require comprehensive and hypothesis driven presentation of data. While expanded opportunities to procure funding from foundations and business partnerships require a different set of delivery expectations.

The Department of Chemical Engineering is hosting Professor Fengqi You, Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University, to present his virtual webinar titled “Multi-Scale Systems Analytics for Energy and Environmental Sustainability” on Thursday, April 21 at 10:35am. 

Margaret Zimmer received her BS in Environmental Studies from Oberlin College, her MS in Earth Sciences from Syracuse University, and her PhD from Earth and Ocean Sciences from Duke University. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she started in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department in January 2018. Her research primarily focuses on investigating how Earth's surface and near-surface dictates water and solute transport and storage.

This event is part of the Penn State EnvironMentors Spring 2022 Webinar Series aimed at introducing high school students to the EnvironMentors program. Topic: College Readiness and Admissions Topic: Construction of data visualization products, representative of previous week air quality data + Finalize Poster Creation  

Abstract: Hurricanes cause much damage and loss of life worldwide. The impacts of these storms may worsen in the coming decades because of rapid coastal development coupled with sea-level rise and possibly increasing hurricane activity due to climate change. Here we present a holistic framework of modeling hurricane hazards and risk in a changing climate. First, we introduce a new probabilistic hurricane model that can be used to generate large numbers of synthetic storms with physically correlated characteristics under projected climate conditions.

The coupling between the troposphere and stratosphere is an important component of the global general circulation of the atmosphere. It also plays an important role in understanding the global budget of chemical constituents and their feedback on the climate system.

You're invited to the Stone Valley Forest Expo: An exhibition of research focused on Pennsylvania ecosystems, natural areas, their management, and people at Shaver's Creek Environmental Center on April 20th. The event is designed to foster collaboration and bolster use of the Stone Valley Forest for research, teaching, outreach, and education. Six 10-minute talks will highlight management, data availability, and research, while the lion share of the event will focus on poster presentations and networking. Snacks are provided.

Dean Rick Roush will be joined by Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering Tom Richard and Assistant Professor of Forest Resource Management Melissa Kreye. Every year forests and agricultural crops remove tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Hundreds of millions of dollars are now on the table to incentivize producers to store more of that carbon.