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- Chesapeake Cellulosic
Biofuels Report Released
The Report of the Chesapeake Cellulosic Biofuels Project Next-Generation Biofuels: Taking
the Policy Lead for the Nation was released at the Cellulosic Biofuels Summit held on September
4, 2008 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
- Seven Penn State faculty win NSF CAREER awards
Seven assistant professors at Penn State have received Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER)
awards. This is the most prestigious award in support of junior faculty exemplifying the role
of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration
of education and research in the context of their organizations.
- Solar Decathlon team opens Sept. 4 meeting
to all faculty, students
Seeking an integrated approach involving students and faculty from academic disciplines across
the University, the 2009 Solar Decathlon team will hold its first informational meeting at 7
p.m. Thursday (Sept. 4) in the jury space of the Stuckeman Family Building on the University
Park campus.
- Global warming greatest in past decade
Researchers confirm that surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were warmer over
the last 10 years than any time during the last 1,300 years, and, if the climate scientists
include the somewhat controversial data derived from tree-ring records, the warming is anomalous
for at least 1,700 years.
- Principles of Snow Hydrology
Published
A new book titled Principles of Snow Hydrology, authored by David R. DeWalle and
Albert Rango, was published by Cambridge University Press in July 2008.
- Gates Foundation grant funds infectious disease project
Penn State researchers will be part of an international team led by the University of Pittsburgh
Graduate School of Public Health to help evaluate new vaccines that will have the best chances
of stopping the global outbreaks of infectious diseases. The project has received a $10
million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
- Future impact of global warming worse when grazing animals considered
The impact of global warming in the Arctic may differ from the predictions of computer models
of the region, according to a pair of Penn State biologists.
- WPSU documentary on aging water infrastructure to air nationally
It is out of sight and out of mind, but America’s aging water system is in dire need of
an overhaul. Penn State Public Broadcasting (WPSU-TV) is set to premiere a public television
event on the looming crisis underneath peoples' feet and how communities are trying to meet this
challenge.
- Hickner selected as Office of Naval Research
young scientist
Michael Hickner, assistant professor of materials science and engineering in
the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State, has been selected as an Office of
Naval Research Young Investigator, U.S. Department of Defense.
- Pesticide buildup could lead
to poor honey bee health
Honey bees industriously bring pollen and nectar to the hive, but along with the bounty comes
a wide variety of pesticides, according to Penn State researchers.
- Boyer Appointed New Water Center Director and Assistant Director of PSIEE
Dr. Elizabeth W. Boyer, associate professor of water resources, will serve as the new
Director of the Pennsylvania Water Resources Research Center and assistant director of the Penn
State Institutes of Energy and the Environment.
- Deep-well natural gas drilling a concern
for state's water quality
Reminiscent of Pennsylvania's halcyon days of oil production and coal mining early in the last
century, the current boom in natural-gas well drilling is a concern for the state's streams
and groundwater, according to an expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
- Research in Puerto
Rico on Corals and Global Warming
Illiana Baums, assistant professor of biology, is collecting coral spawn to acquire important
information about how the corals will respond to global warming.
- Probing Question: Is peak oil a myth?
Unprecedented summer gasoline prices are squeezing Americans' wallets
and also expanding their vocabularies, as terms like "peak oil" gain common usage.
- Tiny invasive snail impacts Great Lakes, alters ecology
Long a problem in the western United States, the New Zealand mud snail currently inhabits
four of the five Great Lakes and is spreading into rivers and tributaries, according to a
Penn State team of researchers.
- Ag Progress Days exhibits to
focus on bioenergy
"Ag Energy: Harnessing the Potential" is the theme of exhibits to
be showcased in the College of Agricultural Sciences Exhibits Building at Penn State’s
Ag Progress Days, Aug. 19-21 -- and the displays will feature what is believed to be a first
in the United States.
- Penn State's Ag Progress Days put conservation,
agronomy in one tent
Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural
Resources Conservation Service often collaborate on programs related to crops, soils and natural
resources. So it only makes sense that the two organizations will join forces under the same
tent at Penn State's Ag Progress Days, set for Aug. 19-21.
- 'Dire Predictions' book offers
easy guide to global warming science
Global warming, increasing greenhouse gases and melting ice sheets are all dire predictions
by the Nobel-Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), but understanding
the scientific assessments, future impacts on our lives, and the things we can do to mitigate
the situation is not easy. Now, in a new book, two Penn State climate scientists present the
information from the most recent IPCC reports in easily understood, sometimes amusing explanations
and illustrations.
- Researcher guides design of Smithsonian exhibit on soil, life on Earth
A Penn State soil scientist helped to lead the design of a new temporary exhibition that opened
this weekend at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. "Dig
It! The Secrets of Soil" exhibition reveals the complex world of soil and how this hidden
ecosystem supports nearly every form of life on Earth.
- Hoadley named Fulbright Scholar
Christopher M. Hoadley, Penn State associate professor of instructional systems and information
sciences and technology, has been named a Fulbright Scholar for the 2008–2009 academic
year.
- Building robots to collect ice sheet data
Penn State researcher Derrick Lampkin has developed with colleagues at Georgia Tech University
an autonomous robot to collect data from remote locations in the Antarctic's ice sheets.
- New book out by Penn State Altoona professor of environmental studies
Brian Black, associate professor of history and environmental studies at Penn State Altoona,
recently published a two-volume reference book set “Great Debates in American Environmental
History.”
- New scholarship honors Forest Resources Director Strauss
A new Trustee Scholarship to assist students in Penn State's School of Forest Resources will
honor the school's retiring director, Charles H. Strauss.
- Employees urged to think outside box for sustainable strategies
Participants in Penn State's second Forum for the Future this month were urged to think differently
by creating new opportunities for people to make a difference in improving the environment.
- Researchers generate hydrogen without
the carbon footprint
A greener, less expensive method to produce hydrogen for fuel may eventually be possible with
the help of water, solar energy and nanotube diodes that use the entire spectrum of the sun's
energy, according to Penn State researchers.
- Pennsylvania State University Awarded NOAA
Sea Grant Institutional Program Designation
NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program has designated Penn State University’s
Behrend College campus in Erie, Pa., as the Institutional Sea Grant Program for the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania.
- New initiative helps recruit elite faculty and staff
Penn State is now part of a national organization that will allow it to better recruit top-notch
faculty and staff from across the country.
- Book explores fuel issues for engineers
Bruce G. Miller, associate director, EMS Energy Institute, and David A. Tillman, chief engineer
of fuels and combustion, Foster Wheeler NA, are the co-editors of "Combustion Engineering
Issues for Solid Fuel Systems," published by Elsevier.
- The
most dangerous nature reserve in the world
The guardian.co.uk online news magazine featured an article about Dr. K.C. Kim and his enduring
efforts to preserve Korea's demilatarized zone (DMZ) as a nature reserve.
- Penn State researchers' integration of
maps and weather data featured by Ivanhoe Broadcast News
Penn State research that integrates National Weather data with GIS was recently featured by
the Ivanhoe Broadcast News. The article "Saving
Lives When Wildfires Burn" also includes a video.
- Earth and Environmental
Systems Institute's Environmental Scholars Announced
Six graduate students who are pursuing research in interdisciplinary environmental sciences
have been selected as EESI Environmental Scholars for the 2008-09 academic year.
- Brenizer wins ASEE nuclear engineering award
Jack Brenizer, the J. "Lee" Everett Professor in Engineering and chair of
the Nuclear Engineering Program, has been named the 2008 Glenn Murphy Award winner.
- Wooly-Mammoth
Gene Study Changes Extinction Theory
A large genetic study of the extinct woolly mammoth has revealed that the
species was not one large homogenous group, as scientists previously had
assumed, and that it did not have much genetic diversity.
- Reducing demand can lower
electric bills, lessen chance of blackouts
A 5-percent reduction in electricity use will lower the market price of electricity, cut consumers'
bills and lessen strain on the grid when demand shoots up along with the mercury this summer,
say energy experts in Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
- A
Survivor in Greenland: A Novel Bacterial Species in Found Trapped in 120,000-Year-Old Ice
A team of Penn State scientists has discovered a new ultra-small species of bacteria that has survived
for more than 120,000 years within the ice of a Greenland glacier at a depth of nearly two miles.
- Northwest Pa. farmers grow camelina for biofuel with PSU help
Northwestern Pennsylvania farmers are forming a co-op with the help of Penn State Cooperative
Extension to produce a promising biofuel raw material -- camelina, a Mediterranean native
plant whose seeds are 40 percent oil and can be used in manufacturing biodiesel.
