Geography doctoral student receives grant to study Indigenous crops in Taiwan
| psu.edu
Penn State geography doctoral student Yu-Chen Chuang was awarded a Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant to advance her research on the conservation of Indigenous crops and traditional farming knowledge in Taiwan.
North Atlantic’s ‘cold blob’ may contain climate nuance
| psu.edu
Climate observers have long tied the strength of a major ocean current to water temperatures in the so-called “cold blob” in the North Atlantic Ocean. New models signal that the relationship between the "blob" and the major ocean current driving its colder temperatures is more dynamic than previously understood.
Machine learning and winter storm predictions to be the focus of Nov. 6 talk
| psu.edu
Song Zhang, a graduate student in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science at Penn State, will give the talk “Understanding, retrieving and predicting winter precipitation with polarimetric radar and machine learning” at 2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, in 117 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building on the University Park campus. The talk also will be available via Zoom.
‘Growing Impact’ podcast explores plants as environmental contaminant sensors
Plants could one day help detect environmental contaminants such as PFAS, giving farmers and communities a faster way to identify potential pollution.
Growing Impact: Can plants detect PFAS?
| Featuring Jared Ali, Heather Preisendanz, Huanyu "Larry" Cheng
Plants respond to insect attacks and other environmental stresses with measurable chemical and electrical signals. Could those signals offer a faster, less expensive way to monitor pollution?
Nine Rock Ethics Institute fellows explore interdisciplinary ethical challenges
| psu.edu
Working with Penn State faculty, the undergraduate fellows will investigate questions ranging from whether AI can help patients understand medical treatments to how maps can represent Indigenous experiences of environmental contamination and what happens when public spaces are privatized. Their research also addresses intelligence, empathy, environmental restoration, media ethics and neuroscience.
Community input strengthens urban flood adaptation model
Urban flooding causes significant social, environmental and economic losses every year. In Baltimore, those losses have increased in frequency and intensity since flooding record began in 1748, and are expected to continue doing so as the climate changes. Traditional flood prevention approaches, which use concrete and other impervious surfaces to direct flow, often fail in urban settings because they impede rainwater infiltration.
Penn State GIS Day 2026 to take place Nov. 16
| psu.edu
Penn State University Libraries will observe GIS Day, an annual event celebrating the technology of geographic information systems, on Nov. 16.
Campus meadow project offers Penn State Beaver student field experience
| psu.edu
Sarah Lavelle, a first-year student at Penn State Beaver, has been hired as an intern to work on the campus meadow establishment project, which is converting four acres of lawn into a biodiverse meadow that is a living learning environment.
Geography doctoral candidates to share research at Oct. 30 Coffee Hour
| psu.edu
Four doctoral graduate students in Penn State’s Department of Geography will deliver research talks as part of the department’s Graduate Student Coffee Hour series at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30.
ICDS announces 26 co-hires in support of AI initiatives
| psu.edu
The Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences recently appointed over 20 new co-hires with the goal of enhancing artificial intelligence research, education, literacy and visibility across the University and beyond.
Natural hazards impact landscape and society, Oct. 30 talk discuss intersection
| psu.edu
Nicolas Choquette-Levy, assistant professor of climate risk and decision-making, will give the talk “Haunted by hazards: Investigating the "long shadow" of natural disturbances through coupled human-biophysical responses,” at 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30, in 117 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building at University Park. The talk will also be available via Zoom.