Past Events: Penn State Energy and Environment Calendar Archive

In 2008, after an alarming number of Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) aviation accidents, the FAA was threatening to disallow commercial aviation over Alaska because the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of Alaska did not satisfy minimum safety requirements for flying under conditions of poor visibility using instrument flight rules (IFR).  Because its topographic base layer was also not accurate enough to support orthorectification of aerial or satellite imagery, Alaska was the only state with no statewide digital orthophotos and had never been mapped at any scale to national mapping

The presentation will describe how the concept of electromagnetically soft and hard surfaces and metamaterial horns came about. I will also discuss practical antennas enabled by these EM techniques, as well as future opportunities and challenges in antenna and RF design. 

Penn State’s Center for Energy Law and Policy is hosting a series of webinars this semester focusing on the economic, human health, legal and industry aspects of Pennsylvania joining RGGI.

Harnessing plant-fungal interactions for enhanced plant growth and protection Imtiaz Ahmad, Penn State​

Energy for the Future Seminar: Sustainable Production and the Circular Economy by Nabil Z. Nasr, Assoc. Provost for Academic Affairs and Director of Golisano Institute for Sustainability; Rochester Institute of Technology; CEO-The REMADE Institute Rochester, New York

In this talk Jamieson suggests that the significance of two of the most important risks of climate change are misunderstood. Political risks matter because the very future of liberal societies and democratic governance are in jeopardy; existential risks matter because they feed political risks, and because they threaten the very sources of meaning in our lives. Together, existential and political risks contribute to and reflect our sense of powerlessness. The old environmentalism was a way of life as much as a search for solutions.

While the relationship between the Arctic sea ice loss and midlatitude winter climate has been well discussed, especially on the seasonal mean scale, it remains unclear whether the Arctic sea ice condition affects the predictability of North American cold weather on the subseasonal time scale. Here we find that, in the presence of low Barents-Kara Sea (BKS) sea ice, Sudden Stratospheric Warmings (SSWs) can favor surface cold spells over North America at the subseasonal timescale based on observations and model experiments.

Part of the Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEP) Seminar Series—Fall 2020 All the events will be https://psu.zoom.us/j/91419785635?pwd=ZU1YenNNQ1M5ME9CZyswenBKa2Y0dz09

Life Cycle Analysis in the Bioeconomy is part of the Penn State Future of Bioenergy and Biorenewables Workshop, presented by Penn State Center for Biorenewables

Hongxing Liu, Lafayette College will present Best Management Practices and Nutrient Reduction: An Integrated Economic-Hydrological Model of the Western Lake Erie Basin

Part of the EESI EarthTalks series “Changemaking made EESI: Fostering inclusive research communities in the Earth and environmental sciences”

Dr. Nicolas Buchler, Associate Professor of Molecular Biomedical Sciences, North Carolina State University

Join Dr. Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan for a discussion on his major priorities as Director of National Science Foundation (NSF)sharing his vision for his six-year term and promising a continued push for inclusiveness in science and engineering. Panch was sworn in as NSF’s 15th director on 2 July 2020.  He was previously the Executive Vice President and Chief Research and Innovation Officer at Arizona State University and is a former Chair of APLU’s Council on Research (COR).

Dr. Menachem Elimelech, Director, Environmental Engineering Program and Roberto Goizueta Professor of Environmental and Chemical Engineering Yale University Zoom Link: psu.zoom.us/j/98470996380

Four leading experts—an atmospheric scientist, an archaeologist, a coral reef biologist, and a professor of media studies—share their diverse perspectives on what needs to be most urgently communicated about climate change now. Join us for an in-depth climate change panel discussion as scientists and journalists relate their experiences communicating their research with the media and other audiences. The panel discussion is free and open to the public, but you must register for the online event.

The interaction between tropical cyclones and upper-tropospheric troughs is a common occurrence in the North Atlantic, and presents complications in forecasting tropical cyclone intensity. Troughs can be both favorable and unfavorable for tropical cyclone intensification. Troughs that are favorable for intensification, versus troughs that are unfavorable, are typically weaker, shallower, and longitudinally-narrower, resulting in reduced vertical wind shear and ventilation. In these situations, convection is able to wrap upshear in the tropical cyclone and promote intensification.

Meeting climate goals requires rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy, agriculture, industry, and practically every other aspect of modern society.  Yet most of the technologies needed for this transition do not exist.  How can policymakers steer system transitions at an unprecedented scale?  This talk will answer that question by looking at the actions needed in each major emitting sector, at how policymakers can organize to address critical uncertainties, and the roles for international cooperation.  The talk will be based on a report published with the Energy Tr

Fall 2020 ESSC Brown Bag Series with Mingyu Park, Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, Penn State To maintain social distancing as much as possible during the novel coronavirus pandemic, seminars will be conducted via Zoom this semester. A hyperlink to the Zoom meeting for each seminar is given in the schedule below in the row corresponding to that seminar. Unless otherwise noted, all seminars are from 11:15am - 12:30pm Zoom link: https://psu.zoom.us/j/95622536379

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 Water Insights Seminar Series engages the University and broader community in collaborative learning and discussion about critical water challenges from local to global scales.   All seminars are scheduled for Tuesdays from 12:00 - 1:00 pm and will be held via Zoom. Zoom room open from 11:30 for setup and log-in. Meetings (video, audio, and chat) will be recorded. No waiting room, and no passcode. Participants will be muted automatically upon entry.