Sept. 9 talk to discuss modeling historic flood impacts on housing markets
| psu.edu
Jingzhou Wang, a graduate student in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Penn State, will give the talk “Flood Risk and Housing Markets without Flood Insurance: Evidence from 1930s Pittsburgh,” at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 9, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State's University Park campus.
Center for Energy Law and Policy's Michael Helbing and Hannah Wiseman release Solar Ordinance Database
The Penn State Center for Energy Law and Policy has published a user-friendly Pennsylvania solar ordinance database. The database includes filters for a variety of provisions in local government ordinances addressing grid-scale solar development. It is available to the public free of charge by clicking here. The database contains 4,900 ordinance provisions from 300 local governments across 57 counties.
Center for Socially Responsible AI invites 2027 seed funding proposals
| psu.edu
Penn State’s Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence invites short proposals for its annual seed funding program. Applications will be accepted through Nov. 2, with projects expected to start in spring 2027 and last up to two years.
Ocean heatwaves linked with poorer health among children in coastal communities
Marine heatwaves — periods of abnormally warm ocean temperatures — may have negative health effects on children who live in coastal communities in low- or middle-income countries, according to a study led by researchers at Penn State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Q&A: Can U.S. parks promote safety, recreation and environmental protection?
Over the past two days, heavy rains have caused flooding in Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks, resulting in the loss of at least two lives. In U.S.
Data center projects in Pennsylvania face stronger local scrutiny after Shapiro’s executive order
| by Mike Helbing
Governors across the country are relying on their executive powers to address the increasing public backlash against data center proposals.
Interface’s Minné joins Penn State Smeal Sustainability Advisory Board
| psu.edu
Travis Lesser, director of the Penn State Smeal College of Business Center for the Business of Sustainability, has announced the addition of Liz Minné to the Smeal Sustainability Advisory Board.
No relief in sight for Caribbean’s drought-hit farmers
| climatecentre.org
The Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology last week again warned the region faces increasingly dry conditions ahead of the official dry season beginning in November, media reports said.
Sept. 4 talk to focus on training neural networks to improve volcano monitoring
| psu.edu
Rebecca Bussard, postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Geosciences at Penn State, will give the talk “Mitigating Atmospheric Noise in InSAR Time-series Over Volcanic Targets Using a Convolutional Neural Network,” at 2 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 4, in 117 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building on the University Park campus and via Zoom.
AI streamlines search for new ceramics that generate electricity
| psu.edu
To streamline the search for new piezoelectric materials, or those that emit an electric charge when manipulated, a team led by materials science researchers at Penn State introduced a new framework that combines an existing artificial intelligence model with human expertise and experimentation.
Barbara Rolls reflects on career that transformed nutritional sciences
| psu.edu
Barbara Rolls will retire on Aug. 31 after 34 years at Penn State, leaving a lasting legacy of groundbreaking research, mentorship and leadership in nutritional sciences.
Master Watershed Steward couple work together to improve the environment
| psu.edu
Starting as Master Gardeners and wanting to help protect local waterways, Penn State Extension Master Watershed Steward program volunteers Jim and Teddy Emberg, of Westmoreland County, have taken that interest and applied themselves to the program in more ways than one.