Hans Verlinde, professor and associate head of the meteorology graduate program, and Arthur Small, CEO of Venti Risk Management, will present "Using Statistical Decision Theory and Dynamic Programming to Improve Scientific Data Collection" at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23, in 102 Leonhard Building on the University Park campus of Penn state. The talk, free and open to the public, is part of the ongoing Industrial Engineering Colloquium Series. (more)
Engineering our way out of global climate warming may not be as easy as simply reducing the incoming solar energy, according to a team of University of Bristol and Penn State climate scientists. Designing the approach to control both sea level rise and rates of surface air temperature changes requires a balancing act to accommodate the diverging needs of different locations. "Basic physics and past observations suggest that reducing the net influx of solar energy will cool the Earth," said Peter J. Irvine, graduate student, University of Bristol, UK, and participant in the Worldwide Universities Network Research Mobility Programme to Penn State. "However, surface air temperatures would respond much more quickly and sea levels will respond much more slowly." (more)
Alisha Fernandez, a doctoral candidate in energy and mineral engineering and National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate fellow, was awarded the Dennis J O'Brien United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE) Best Student Paper Award for her paper "Evaluating ecosystem and wind-following services for hydroelectric dams in PJM." The paper also was accepted for publication in of the Journal for Regulatory Economics in 2012. (more)
For students, postdocs and other researchers in Penn State's Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the message is clear: you can dance if you want to, but safety is mandatory. A video focused on lab safety and set to the 1980s pop tune "Safety Dance" took hold as a centerpiece of the department's Safety Week programming this year. Since it began in 2009, Safety Week has become one of the University's most successful laboratory safety training efforts. (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)
Roman Engel-Herbert has received the inaugural Norris B. McFarlane career professorship. Engel-Herbert joined the department in July of this year, after a post-doctoral position in the Materials Department at The University of California, Santa Barbara. The professorship is part of a $1 million commitment from the estate of Cathleen McFarlane-Ross, longtime friend of Penn State. McFarlane-Ross's gift honors her late husband, industrialist Norris "Mac" McFarlane, who graduated from Penn State in 1934 with a bachelor of science degree in metallurgy. (more)
A Weather World feature written and produced by Jon Nese and Marisa Ferger of the Penn State Meteorology Department has been nominated for a Mid-Atlantic Emmy by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Nese's Emmy nomination is in the category "Weather -- News, Single Story or Series" for his segment, "St. Patrick's Day 1936 - A Taxing Flood," which aired on the WeatherWhys portion of Weather World on March 17, 2010 on the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) and WPSU-TV. (more)
The College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) conducted the Summer Experience in the Earth and Mineral Sciences (SEEMS) program from June 15-21. This summer marked the 12th year that EMS has collaborated with the Penn State Upward Bound Math and Science (UBMS) Summer Academy to provide opportunities for UBMS scholars to work with EMS faculty, graduate students and undergraduates on conducting hands-on research projects. Research projects included: "Petroleum Geology," "Shape Metal Alloys," "Gasification Kinetics of Coal and Biomass Blends," and "Rock Mechanics." (more)
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has forever altered how Americans view oil as an energy source. While America will need oil for years to come, interest in cleaner, renewable energy technologies is growing, and so is the demand for new policies that enable them. In addition, a 2010 report by the President's Council of Economic Advisers found the clean energy provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are expected to create more than 700,000 "green jobs" by 2012. These jobs will require a workforce that understands the technologies and can negotiate policies for energy and sustainable practices in the energy field. A new Penn State program aims to prepare people for a role in policy making and communications. (more)
Energy entrepreneur David A. T. Donohue and his wife, Pamela, recently committed $100,000 to establish the David and Pamela Donohue Trustee Scholarship in Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS). The purpose of the scholarship is to provide financial assistance to undergraduates who demonstrate need for funds to meet their college expenses with a preference for students majoring in petroleum and natural gas engineering. (more)
