Penn State Engineering climbs to No. 28 in US News rankings of best grad schools
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Penn State's College of Engineering ranked No. 28 — rising three places from last year — for overall national engineering graduate programs in U.S. News & World Report's recently released 2026 "Best Graduate Schools" ranking. The college ranks No. 14 in the nation among public university programs, and it remains the No. 1 public university program in Pennsylvania.
Penn State biochemist Melanie McReynolds awarded Hypothesis Fund seed grant
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Melanie McReynolds, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Early Career Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has been selected to receive a seed grant from the Hypothesis Fund. The Hypothesis Fund advances scientific knowledge by supporting early stage, innovative research that increases adaptability against systemic risks to the health of people and the planet.
Former Ag Sciences dean creates student experience funds
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Bruce McPheron and his wife, Marilyn, have made both a future pledge and an outright gift to support student experience opportunities in the College of Agricultural Sciences Department of Entomology and at the Frost Entomological Museum.
Rural sociology expert named new Population Research Institute director
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Brian Thiede, associate professor of rural sociology, of sociology and of demography, has been named the director of the Population Research Institute at Penn State.
Treetops glowing during storms captured on film for first time
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Penn State experts in meteorology and atmospheric science made their way down the nation’s eastern coast in June 2024 in search of corona discharges, a long-hypothesized atmospheric weather phenomenon where miniscule pulses of electricity dance at the tips of tree leaves, causing the canopy to glow in the ultraviolet (UV). They found them and captured the phenomenon on film for the first time.
April 22 talk: Using voluntary controls to reduce peak electricity demand
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Christina McGranaghan, an assistant professor of applied economics at the University of Delaware, will give the talk, “Taking a Load Off: Experimental Evidence of Preferences for Control with an Application to Residential Electricity Demand,” at noon on Wednesday, April 22.
Geography undergraduate researches satellite estimates of Antarctic meltwater
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A Penn State geography student is using satellite data to study uncertainty in Antarctic surface hydrology through undergraduate research in the Cryosphere and Climate Lab.
Seed from Midwest ginseng farms planted in eastern forests raises questions
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To meet global demand for American ginseng, the medicinal plant traditionally collected in the forests of Appalachia and traded and used internationally, the plant now is commonly cultivated on forest farms in the U.S. Northeast. But new research has revealed that much of the seed for that agroforestry enterprise is coming from field-based, artificial-shade ginseng farms in Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada — and it may be influencing the genetics of naturally occurring ginseng.
Plant scientists receive $1.96M NIH grant to study plant-bacteria partnerships
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A team of plant scientists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has received a $1.96 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund a study of how beneficial plant-bacteria partnerships evolve, persist, and can be harnessed to improve health and agriculture.
Penn State Berks to host Earth Day celebration, April 22
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The Penn State Berks Sustainability Council will host its annual Earth Day celebration from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday, April 22, in the Perkins Plaza, located just outside the Perkins Student Center, with a rain location of the Gaige Technology and Innovation Building. The Earth Day celebration will include community organizations, student tables, and activities, including planting in the campus garden. The event is free and open to the public and light refreshments will be served.
Communication, Science & Society Initiative awards four interdisciplinary grants
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The Communication, Science & Society Initiative, a research partnership between Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences in the College of the Liberal Arts, has announced the grant recipients from its 2025 request for proposals.
Unlocking unusual superconductivity in a lightweight element
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New research led by Penn State researchers has demonstrated that superconductivity can be maintained in magnetic fields stronger than the usual limit by sandwiching atomically thin films of a lightweight element called gallium between two other materials to engineer quantum interactions at the interfaces between the layers.