John Asbury, an assistant professor of chemistry at Penn State University, has been honored with a Department of Energy Office of Science Early Career Research award. The award is designed "to bolster the nation's scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work." The award also aims to provide scientists with incentives to focus on fields of research that are a high priority to the Department of Energy and to the United States. (more)
U.S. Secretary of Energy, distinguished scientist and Nobel Laureate Steven Chu will receive an honorary doctor of science degree from Penn State. The University's Board of Trustees today (March 16) approved Chu as a recipient, who will receive the degree and deliver a keynote address during commencement ceremonies at University Park on May 5. Chu, the former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and former professor of physics and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, was co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997. (more)
High energy density batteries that significantly reduce size and improve performance and cell life is the goal of the lithium-sulfur cell technology project led by Penn State and funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The $5 million, three-year grant is part of the DOE's Advanced Vehicle Research and Development program, which aims to improving fuel efficiency of next generation vehicles. (more)
Three Penn State-led projects have received more than $1.6 million in combined research and development grants from the U.S. Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy University Programs. (more)
For the first time, scientists have been able to paint a detailed chemical picture of how a particular strain of bacteria has evolved to become resistant to antibiotics. The research is a key step toward designing compounds to prevent infections by recently evolved, drug-resistant "superbugs" that often are found in hospitals, as well as in the general population. The research team that made this discovery, which is published in the journal Science, is led by Squire Booker, an associate professor in the department of chemistry and the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State. (more)
The United States Department of Energy's Office of Science Graduate Fellowship Program has selected 150 students throughout the U.S. to receive graduate fellowship awards in an effort to strengthen the nation's scientific work force. Deemed part of the nation's "next generation of scientific and technical leaders" by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, two of these fellows are Elizabeth Essinger-Hileman of Masontown, Pa., and Kara Sulia of Cookstown, N.J. Both are currently graduate students conducting research at Penn State. (more)
An international team of scientists, led by Penn State Distinguished Professor Donald Schneider, has announced its completion of a massive census in which they identified the quasars in one quarter of the sky. "Quasars are hundreds of times more luminous than our entire galaxy, yet they generate this tremendous power in regions similar in scale to that of our much smaller solar system," said Schneider. "The best explanation of this extraordinary phenomenon is that we are witnessing the light energy emitted by material falling into black holes with masses of hundreds of millions of times, or even more than a billion times, that of our Sun." (more)
Penn State has been awarded $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for two projects that could change the way the nation uses and produces energy. The money, funded through the DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, is part of a second round of funding of the Recovery Act of 2009, U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania announced Thursday (April 29). (more)
Penn State will receive two Department of Energy (DOE) grants that place the University at the center of the nation's effort to become energy independent and develop clean energy sources, according to an announcement made today (Oct. 16) by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. The first grant provides $2 million to establish the Mid Atlantic Clean Energy Applications Center to promote adoption of clean energy technology by industry and government in the six Mid Atlantic states. The second grant provides $3.5 million to establish the Mid Atlantic Solar Resource and Training Center, aimed at developing the solar energy industry in the Mid Atlantic region through technical assistance and workforce development. (more)
Anna Stasto, assistant professor of physics at Penn State, is the recipient of one of the three Outstanding Junior Investigator (OJI) awards in the field of nuclear physics presented by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) this year. These highly competitive awards are intended to recognize scientific achievement in the fields of particle and nuclear physics and to identify and support the development of faculty members during the early years of their careers. The Outstanding Junior Investigator Award will help to support Stasto's research for three years. (more)
