One of the hallmarks of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences is our long history of interdisciplinary collaboration and research. Our researchers bring expertise from different segments of the scientific community and work together to bring new perspectives to existing scientific conversations. Please visit the research institutes, centers, and laboratories that are faculty are involved in to learn more.
College-level Institutes
- Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI) — one of the nation’s leading institutes in earth and environmental sciences research. EESI's diverse and world-renowned faculty members are engaged in interdisciplinary, innovative, and collaborative research on some of the most compelling problems and issues of our time
- EMS Energy Institute — a leading research and development organization focused on energy science and engineering
- John A. Dutton e-Education Institute — as the learning design unit for the college, the Dutton Institute designs, develops and manages online courses and programs in the college’s five academic departments, and supports EMS faculty in the delivery of resident instruction offerings
Institutes, Centers and Laboratories
- Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering and Development in Africa (AESEDA) -- serves as a coordinating body that promotes Penn State engagement in Africa through programs that integrate research with education, while improving the human condition and enhancing economic vitality for African populations
- Air and Precipitation Chemistry Lab — conducts air chemistry research in regional air quality, the atmospheric effects of aircraft, and chemistry’s role in global change
- Baker Hughes Production Lab
- Battery and Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Center — brings together the campus-wide expertise in energy storage, fosters collaboration, and provides a focal point for research and education activities spanning from materials to cells to systems
- Center for Climate Risk Management — brings together scholars to catalyze transformative, integrated research on climate change, mitigation, adaptation, and decision making that transcends disciplinary boundaries and advances real-world climate risk management
- Center for Critical Minerals (C2M) — combines Penn State's expertise across several colleges in partnership with industrial partners to develop the fundamental science and technology needed to harness domestic mineral sources
- Center for Dielectric Studies — provides international leadership and train next-generation scientists in the fundamental science and engineering that underpin dielectric and piezoelectric materials
- Center for Energy Law and Policy - provides a hub for systematic interdisciplinary research around pressing energy issues where technology, social and legal frameworks are critical ingredients to successful policy design and implementation
- Center for Environmental geoChemistry and Genomics — promotes cross-disciplinary research and teaching in the area of environmental geochemistry and genomics through analytical, computer, and field work
- Center for Environmental Informatics — develops technology solutions that leverage environmental information for decision making resource management, and broader applied use
- Center for Geomechanics, Geofluids & Geohazards — offers an interdepartmental experience in rock and fluid physics through laboratory experiments, field observations, theoretical analysis, and mathematical modeling
- Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP-3D) — a world-class resource for advancing and deploying additive manufacturing technology of metallic and advanced material systems for critical applications in industry.
- Center for Landscape Dynamics — promotes scholarship and training in landscape science to inform landscape decision making and socio-ecological resilience
- Center for Marine Science and Technology (CMAST) — serves as the centralized organization for oceanography and marine science at Penn State
- Center for Nanoscale Science — supports collaborative, interdisciplinary research efforts in the area of nanoscale materials with research themes focused broadly on areas like nanomaterial synthesis and fabrication, complex oxide thin films, and multicomponent assemblies for collective optical and electronic functions
- Center for Research on Advanced Fiber Technologies — fosters collaborative research on new phenomena and applications of programmable smart composite fibers that could be transformed into high impact functional textile products in medicine, automobile, energy, biotechnology, and cosmetic industries
- Center for Security Research and Education (CSRE) — promotes research and education to protect people, infrastructure, and institutions from the broad range of hazards confronting society today.
- Center for Solutions to Weather & Climate Risk — advances the science of exploiting environmental opportunities and understanding environmental impacts to manage risk
- Center for Quantitative Imaging — focuses on two main areas of research – monitoring of internal processes in experimental systems and characterization of complex three-dimensional structure and material composition in natural and synthetic systems – using state-of-the-art instrumentation
- Center for Two-Dimensional and Layered Materials — offers a unique integrated research education to graduate and undergraduate students by conducting leading international and multidisciplinary research on 2D layered materials using state-of-the-art infrastructure
- Chevron Lab
- ChoroPhronesis — research focus is on space/environments and how humans think about them, interact with them, represent them, and change them
- Cloud and Aerosol Experimentation Lab — investigates important microscale phenomena that contribute to the formation and properties of clouds and aerosols
- Earth System Science Center — describes, models, and understands the Earth’s climate system through critical studies
- Ecology Institute -- addresses the most defining challenges in contemporary ecology by bringing together interdisciplinary faculty, students, postdoctoral scholars, and stakeholders to drive innovation in ecology-based research and training.
- Electrochemical Engine Center — conducts fundamental and applied research on fuel cells and advanced batteries for electric propulsion, stationary power generation, and portable electronics through multidisciplinary research on cutting-edge electrochemical power devices
- Geoinformatics and Earth Observation Lab — develops new computational methodologies and cyberinfrastructure solutions for the analyses of geospatial big data, with a focus on problems with high impact to society such as environmental hazards and renewable energy
- GeosyntheSES Lab — studies the human-earth systems of agrobiodiversity, food, land use, climate change, livelihoods, sustainability, and political ecology to contribute to the knowledge, understanding, and communication of policy-relevant science and scholarship
- Gould Center for Geograpy Education and Outreach — supports the University’s mission of instruction, research, and service through excellence in cartography
- Hydrology Laboratory and Fluids Laboratory — researches permeability testing of rock and soil samples and strength testing of granular materials and fluid flow and flame demonstration experiments
- Institute for Sustainable Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Science -- establishes a novel environment for accelerating solutions to persistently "wicked" landscape-level challenges centered on agriculture, food, and the environment.
- Landscape Ecology at Penn State (LEAPS) — focuses on understanding how ecosystems change in space and time to inform landscape-level research and management
- Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research (MCOR) — coordinates and facilitates programs of research and outreach at Penn State to address the complete range of issues presented by development of the Marcellus Shale and other gas shales
- Materials Characterization Lab — seeks to apply a breadth of collective expertise to engage in research without boundaries, and thereby create a new generation of highly qualified graduates who can both communicate and innovate in a converging technological world
- Materials Computational Center — supports Penn State faculty working in computer-based simulations of materials across the various length and time scales
- Micrometeorology Lab — focuses on activities to advanced understanding of the surface-atmospheric interactions responsible for the transport of energy and trace gases in the lower atmosphere
- Mining Engineering Laboratories — equipped with professional surface mining software, a rock mechanics laboratory, and a ventilation laboratory
- Nanofabrication Laboratory — allows research into materials and device characterization utilizing the most advanced techniques available at the nanoscale level
- Penn State Astrobiology Research Center — focuses on enabling the recognition of signatures of life on the early Earth in extreme environments and in extraterrestrial settings
- Penn State Ice and Climate Exploration — is a diverse group of Penn State researchers with a common interest in the cryosphere
- Penn State Lab for Analysis of Culture and Environment — facilitates collaborative learning, research, and training among graduate students doing research in human geography
- Planetary System Science Center (PSSC) — seeks to enable the Penn State community to explore the solar system and expand the involvement of Penn State faculty and students in planetary science missions and research. The PSSC is devoted to broad, interdisciplinary research in this exciting, rapidly developing field. The center promotes collaborations among scientists at Penn State, promotes collaborations between Penn State and other institutions, and recruits early career planetary scientists to Penn State.
- Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium — expands opportunities for Pennsylvanians to learn about and participate in NASA’s aeronautics and space programs by supporting and enhancing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, research, and outreach programs
- Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Laboratories — facilities include production, rock, and fluid properties cement laboratories and a drilling rig simulator
- Repurposing Center for Energy Transition (ReCET) - focus is repurposing fossil energy infrastructure for energy transition applications especially in energy communities.
- Riparia — conducts, facilitates, and coordinates interdisciplinary research, monitoring, and training regarding wetlands and related resources, with an emphasis on mid-Atlantic and northeastern states
- Rock and Sediment Mechanics Laboratory - research is focused on the physics of earthquakes and faulting and the mechanics of frictional sliding
- Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory — conducts research that promotes the understanding of how a forested, first-order catchment of shale bedrock evolves over multiple time scales in a temperate climate
- Sustainable Climate Risk Management — an interdisciplinary team of scholars at 19 universities and five research institutions across 6 nations that seeks to develop sustainable, scientifically sound, technologically feasible, economically efficient, and ethically defensible climate risk management strategies
- University Coalition for Basic and Applied Fossil Energy Research and Development (UCFER) - Coalition was established to advance basic and applied fossil energy research through mechanisms that promote collaboration among the Department of Energy (DOE) and member universities by the coordination of research and the sharing of data
- Vegetation Dynamics Lab — focuses on identifying the causes and consequences of vegetation change in ecological communities from both a theoretical and applied perspective
- Water Consortium
