Read the latest news about research conducted by investigators in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Our faculty and students are continually advancing technology, creating solutions and expanding knowledge with new and innovative research.
05/09/2024
Manzhu Yu, assistant professor of geography, has developed a new model that combines wildfire smoke forecasts and data from ground-based sensors may help public health officials plan targeted interventions in areas most at risk for the negative health effects of unexpected smoke events and air pollution.
05/08/2024
Ancient, expansive tracts of continental crust called cratons have helped keep Earth’s continents stable for billions of years, even as landmasses shift, mountains rise and oceans form. A new mechanism proposed by Penn State scientists may explain how the cratons formed some 3 billion years ago, an enduring question in the study of Earth’s history.
05/08/2024
A Penn State research team was recently awarded a $4.99 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop and assess advanced separation technologies for the extraction and recovery of rare earth elements and other critical materials from coal, coal wastes and coal by-products.
05/03/2024
Move over, graphene. There’s a new, improved two-dimensional material in the lab. Borophene, the atomically thin version of boron first synthesized in 2015, is more conductive, thinner, lighter, stronger and more flexible than graphene, the 2D version of carbon.
05/02/2024
The latest episode of Growing Impact discusses how thawing Arctic permafrost is affecting rivers and communities in the region. With temperatures rising globally due to climate change, landscapes in the Arctic are evolving.
05/01/2024
$975,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) grant awarded to Miquela Ingalls, assistant professor and Wilson Faculty Fellow.
04/30/2024
Mort Webster has been selected to receive up to $815,959 from the Grid Deployment Office of the U.S. Department of Energy to evaluate prospective market design changes to efficiently integrate batteries and other unconventional resources into wholesale electricity markets, with the aim of improving electrical grid reliability.
04/30/2024
Paul Nicklen, the award-winning nature photographer and conservationist, will be the keynote speaker for Penn State’s Climate Solutions Symposium. His presentation is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Tuesday, May 14, at The Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center.
04/23/2024
The winners of the 16th annual Materials Visualization Competition (MVC), a scientific visual and artistic competition sponsored by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) and the Materials Research Institute (MRI) at Penn State, have been announced.
04/22/2024
Extracting natural gas from shale formations can provide an abundant, lower-carbon footprint fossil fuel, but also creates concerns over increased methane emissions. A team led by Penn State researchers has developed a new tool that can estimate the emission potential of shale wells after they are no longer active.