IEE faculty, staff, and projects in the news
Saharan dust decreases, unleashing more tropical storms in the Atlantic
| postandcourier.com
Less dust from the Sahara in the past week opened the door to more tropical activity in the Atlantic, raising hurricane risks at the height of storm season.
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Cover crops project provides fertile ground for USDA graduate fellows
| psu.edu
Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences graduate students received more predoctoral fellowships from the U.S. Department of Agriculture than any other institution over the last five years. This year, five of the 11 recipients worked in the college’s long-term cover crop cocktails experiment.
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Curbing cow belches in the name of climate change mitigation
| psu.edu
A Penn State livestock emissions expert has received a grant from the Greener Cattle Initiative to develop actionable options to mitigate enteric (intestinal) methane emissions from cattle — which are produced via belching.
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US outdoors tourists pack an economic punch. What else they leave behind can be messy
| goerie.com
The economic benefits of growing outdoors use are accompanied by crowds that can degrade natural resources of fragile ecosystems. This article mentions a study that resulted from an IEE Seed Grant.
Texas’ environmental agency enables companies to increase oilfield wastewater disposal in rivers
| msn.com
When a team of researchers at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi combed through Railroad Commission records several years ago, they found more than 50 permits allowing conventional oil and gas drillers to discharge oil field wastewater, known as produced water, into creeks and streams near the Eagle Ford shale basin in South Texas. This article quotes William Burgos, professor of civil and environmental engineering.
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Seed Grant Projects
Engineering researcher joining Institutes of Energy and the Environment
| psu.edu
Derek Hall, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, is joining the Institutes of Energy and the Environment on Aug. 15.
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Derek Hall
Assistant Professor, John and Willie Leone Department of Energy & Mineral Engineering (EME)
The legal and social complexities of solving climate change
As the United States and other countries around the world wrestle with climate change and its impacts, there is also a lot of debate related to the technology, finances, regulations, and social acceptance of potential solutions to climate change.
Authors
Q&A: Carbon voyage
| psu.edu
Researchers in the Penn State Department of Mechanical Engineering received a $2 million grant from the Navy Decarbonization Research Consortium to study shipboard carbon capture and alternative fuel utilization. The project is detailed in a Q&A with Associate Professor Brian Fronk.
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Mirror, mirror, who is the most efficient semiconductor of them all?
| psu.edu
Current synthesizing approaches to make single-layer nanosheets of semiconducting material for atomically thin electronics develop a peculiar “mirror twin” defect that reduces the performance of devices like transistors. This is a problem preventing the advancement of next-generation electronics, according to researchers from the Penn State’s Two-Dimensional Crystal Consortium-Materials Innovation Platform and their collaborators. But now, the research team may have come up with a solution to correct this defect. They published their work in Nature Nanotechnology.
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Joan Redwing
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Saptarshi Das
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Shengxi Huang
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Nasim Alem
Norris B. McFarlane Faculty Career Development Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering -
Vincent Crespi
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Adri van Duin
How much good does recycling do these days?
| abc27.com
Almost every one of us has a recycling bin where we live. But how many of us know exactly what is allowed in one? And how many of us have wondered how much good recycling does these days? This article and broadcast TV segment quotes Erica Smithwick, Distinguished Professor of Geography.
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Erica Smithwick: A practical, financially helpful way to fight climate change
| post-gazette.com
This summer, Pennsylvanians across the state were forced to endure some of the most dangerous levels of air pollution we’ve seen in decades. This op-ed was written by Erica Smithwick, Distinguished Professor of Geography.
Authors
Growing Impact: Season 4
In season four, Growing Impact is expanding: more team members from different disciplines and deeper conversations around the challenges their project is addressing, the inspiration that turned an idea into a project, and the solutions that may arise from these interdisciplinary researchers. Join us on September first for season four of Growing Impact.
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