Scott Phillips, an assistant professor of chemistry at Penn State and holder of the Martarano Career Development Professorship, has been honored with an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow award in recognition of his research accomplishments. Sloan Research Fellowships are intended to enhance the careers of the very best young faculty members in seven fields of science: chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics. (more)
Detectable for only a few seconds but possessing enormous energy, gamma-ray bursts are difficult to capture because their energy does not penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. Now, thanks to an orbiting telescope, astrophysicists are filling in the unknowns surrounding these bursts and uncovering new questions. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, formerly called the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, launched on June 11, 2008. As part of its mission, the telescope records any gamma-ray bursts within its viewing area. (more)
Raymond Schaak, a professor of chemistry at Penn State, has been selected to receive the 2012 Penn State Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Physical Sciences. Established in 1980, the award recognizes scholarly or creative excellence represented by a single contribution or a series of contributions around a coherent theme. A committee of faculty peers reviews nominations and selects candidates. (more)
A free public lecture titled "Roots of the Second Green Revolution" will take place at 11 a.m. on Feb. 25 in Room 100 of the Thomas Building on Penn State's University Park campus. The speaker will be Jonathan Lynch, who is a professor of plant nutrition in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State. (more)
Scott Phillips, assistant professor of chemistry at Penn State and holder of the Martarano Career Development Professorship, has been honored with a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The CAREER award is the most prestigious award given by the NSF in support of junior faculty members who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent teaching, and the integration of education and research. The CAREER award provides five years of funding and is given to assistant professors by the NSF directorates at different times during the year. (more)
An assistant professor at Penn State has created a new statistical model that may enable fingerprint evidence to withstand greater scrutiny in court. Currently, some fingerprints that could be key pieces of evidence in court are not being considered because of shortcomings in the way this evidence is reported. Cedric Neumann, assistant professor of forensic science and statistics at Penn State, has devised a statistical model to enable the weight of fingerprint evidence to be expressed in quantitative terms, paving the way for its full inclusion in the criminal-identification process. Fingerprints have been used for over a century as a way of identifying criminals; however, fingerprint evidence is not currently permitted to be reported in court unless examiners claim absolute certainty that a mark has been left by a particular suspect. This courtroom certainty is based purely on the opinion of experts, formed through years of training and experience, but not on scientific data. (more)
Andrew F. Read, a professor of biology and entomology at Penn State, has been named the Alumni Professor in the Biological Sciences. Read perhaps is best known for his research on how natural selection shapes the virulence of malaria and how the "unnatural" selection imposed by medicine shapes the evolution of disease-causing organisms. This evolution causes drugs to fail and can create "super-bugs" that are resistant to pharmaceuticals. Since evolutionary responses to drugs, insecticides, and vaccines are the main causes of problems in preventing and treating infectious diseases, Read sees potential to use an improved understanding of pathogen evolution to inform public-health decisions. (more)
The 15th annual Environmental Chemistry Student Symposium will be held March 30-31 on Penn State's University Park campus. The symposium brings together students from various departments to present research addressing environmental understanding and concerns. The deadline for abstract submissions is Feb. 24. For more information, or to submit an abstract, visit the symposium's website at http://www.essc.psu.edu/ECSS. (more)
A free public lecture titled "Feeding the Future: From the Lab Bench to the Dinner Table" will take place at 11 a.m. on Feb 18, in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus. The speaker will be Bruce McPheron, professor of entomology and dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State. The event is the fifth of six lectures in the 2012 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, a free minicourse for the general public with the theme "Food: Strategies for Growing Enough for Everyone." No registration is required. The lectures take place on consecutive Saturday mornings from 11 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building. (more)
