Still Life

Lady Lions Alex Bentley, left, and Zhaque Gray celebrate their Big Ten championship after beating Ohio State 84-66 on Monday, Feb. 20, at the Bryce Jordan Center on Penn State's University Park campus. The Lady Lions clinched their first conference regular season title since 2004.

Lady Lions win Big Ten championship

THON 2012 shattered last year's total, raising $10,686,924.83 for the Four Diamonds Fund.

THON 2012 breaks $10 million

THON child Megan Eslinger, 4, chases bubbles blown by dancer Elizabeth Ferrari on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 18, during THON at the Bryce Jordan Center on Penn State's University Park campus. The 46-hour no-sitting, no-sleeping event raises millions of dollars each year for the Four Diamonds Fund.

THON 2012 going strong

Owen Divers and Quinn Allen started off strong for THON 2012 on Friday, Feb. 17.

THON 2012 under way

Mike Rybar made final adjustments to the Penn State Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering teams Goldberg machine prior to the 2012 Rube Goldberg competition held on Feb. 11 at Penn State's Nittany Lion Inn. Rybar and his team created a musically themed machine that needed to complete a simple task (inflate a balloon) in twenty or more elaborate steps. The annual competition is named for cartoonist Rube Goldberg who created famous artwork depicting overly complicated machines doing everyday tasks.

Rube Goldberg Competition: Feb. 11, 2012

Featured Video

We ... are Penn State (December 19, 2011)

We ... are Penn State (December 19, 2011)

Penn State's creamery, from the cow to the cone

Penn State's creamery, from the cow to the cone

Researchers use balloons to unlock mysteries posed by dying stars

Researchers use balloons to unlock mysteries posed by dying stars

Everyday virus proves potent against cancer cells.

Everyday virus proves potent against cancer cells.

Updates:
Penn State Promise

Task force continues initiatives to help abused and neglected children

Moody's removes Penn State from 'watchlist' and confirms Aa1 rating

Penn State defends rights and files suit against insurer

Penn State strengthens academic programs related to child sexual abuse

Penn State launches new website for information

Engelder named one of top 100 global thinkers

Monday, November 28, 2011

University Park, Pa. -- Terry Engelder, professor of geosciences at Penn State, has been named one of Foreign Policy Magazine's "Top 100 Global Thinkers" for 2011.

Engelder, along with Gary Lash, professor of geoscience, State University of New York, Fredonia, with whom he collaborates, and George P. Mitchell, Texas oilman, were designated number 36 on the list "for upending the geopolitics of energy."

In 1979, Mitchell backed the idea that breaking up shale containing natural gas deposits -- fracking -- would release vast reserves of natural gas. While fracking took years to perfect, the approach reordered the global balance of energy and the political power that comes with it, according to the magazine.

In 2008 Engelder and Lash estimated reserves of the U.S. Northeast's Marcellus shale formation at 50 trillion cubic feet. In 2009, Engelder revised the reserve estimate up to 489 trillion cubic feet, making it the world's largest unconventional natural gas reserve.

In 1983, under a National Science Foundation grant, Engelder began looking into natural fracking to generate fractures in gas shale. With Lash, he subsequently mapped the process in the Marcellus and other gas shale of the Appalachian basin. Because of the physical nature of the fractures in the Marcellus shale, they suggested that horizontal drilling -- drilling across the natural fractures of the formation -- would allow companies like Mitchell's in Texas to recover gas from the shale at economic costs even with the added expense of horizontal drilling. Their discovery applies to gas deposits globally.

"The 100 Global Thinkers" appear in the current issue of Foreign Policy Magazine. Engelder will be honored along with the rest of the Global Thinkers at a gala hosted by Washington Post Company CEO Don Graham. Foreign Policy magazine is an award-winning magazine of global politics, economics and ideas published by the Slate Group, a division of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive LLC.