Impact, the magazine of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, is published twice a year online. Read for college news, the latest research discoveries, stories about outstanding alumni and students, and more.
Contents include features about each of our five departments, science snapshots, engaged students, around the college, faculty notes, and alumni accolades.
Features
The Making of Viral
Maps
Researchers delve into the dark waters of fake cartography used to misinform public
Read article >>
From Leaves to Solar
Cells
Biological materials boost the
next generation of
solar technology
The Dawn of the Golden Age of Planetary Science
Geoscientists play a crucial role in the search for life in our solar system and beyond
Read article >>
Getting Their Feet Wet,
Virtually
Faculty, industry leaders spring together for energy research internship opportunities
Read article >>
Interdisciplinary Team Combats Air Quality Issues in Africa
Improving air quality assessments, forecasting, and public health outcomes for West Africa
Read article >>
Dean's Message
Read articleScience Snapshots
- Air quality data during COVID-19 may help improve models, guide interventions
- Center for Nanoscale Science renewed at $18 million for six years
- Drilling project to understand past, future ice sheet melting
- ‘Gargantuan’ hail in Argentina may have smashed world record
- Penn State and Colorado School of Mines partner on critical minerals
- Virtual reality forests could help understanding of climate change
- Cold sintering produces capacitor material at record low temperatures
- Ice melt projections may underestimate Antarctic contribution to sea level rise
- New acid mine drainage treatment turns waste into valuable critical minerals
- Shelter, safest air intake locations during urban pollution events identified
- Fossil carbon burned by asteroid impact contributed to dinosaur extinction
- Over $10 million awarded for energy center
- Knowledge of severe storm patterns may improve tornado warnings
- Ocean color satellites reveal glacier algae, insights for climate models
- Using minerals from ancient soils to reconstruct past climate
Engaged Students
- Penn State launches master’s degree in spatial data science
- Bingo offers students in isolation and quarantine fun, engagement
- Molina named Sloan Scholar
- Student-led glass conference spotlights work of young researchers
- Online certificate program graduates first students
- College boasts six new NSF graduate researchers
- Kelly Núñez Ocasio named Sloan Scholar
- Scholarship created in honor of Juan Garcia
- Weather Risk Management Club stays connected, examines pandemic impacts remotely
Around the College
- Penn State hosted All-Atlantic Summit
- Historian Kendi discussed how to be an anti-racist at virtual event
- Weather World wins statewide award for hurricane series
- 125th Anniversary Celebration
- John Mauro selected for 2020 Paul F. Robertson Research Breakthrough of the Year Award
- Zuleima Karpyn appointed associate dean
- Jose Fuentes honored for work on No Time for Silence team
- Virtual EarthTalks seminars focused on diversity in environmental sciences
- Students, faculty honored at virtual Wilson Awards ceremony
Faculty Notes
- James Adair selected to present the Frontiers of Science and Society Rustum Roy Lecture
- Todd Bacastow appointed to the board of United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation
- Tim Bralower received George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching
- Cynthia Brewer awarded the O. M. Miller Cartographic Medal
- Long-Qing Chen earned the Ross Coffin Purdy Award
- Eugene Clothiaux named the John T. Ryan Jr. Faculty Fellow
- Roman DiBiase named Rudy L. Slingerland Early Career Professor of Geosciences
- Lorraine Dowler received Jan Monk Service Award
- Katherine Freeman awarded Nemmers Prize in Earth Sciences
- John Hellmann selected to give Arthur L. Friedberg Ceramic Engineering Tutorial and Lecture
- Robert Hickey received an NSF CAREER Award for the project “Enabling the Design of Versatile Hybrid Materials using Polymerization-Induced Nanostructural Transitions”
- Gregory Jenkins received the Charles E. Anderson Award
- Matthew Kumjian received the Henry G. Houghton Award
- Zi-Kui Liu was named the inaugural Dorothy Pate Enright Professor
- Chiara Lo Prete received an NSF CAREER Award for the project, “Capacity Adequacy Options for Electricity Markets with Increasing Renewable Penetration: Equilibrium Models and Laboratory Experiments”
- Jon-Paul Maria was elected a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society
- Michael Mann received the Louis J. Battan Author’s Award for the book, The Tantrum That Saved the World
- Michael Mann was co-awarded the 2020 World Sustainability Award
- John Mauro was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors
- Shashank Priya earned a Richard M. Fulrath Award
- Wesley Reinhart was among Penn State’s Institute for Computational and Data Sciences 2020 cohort of faculty
fellows - Mohammad Rezaee received the Outstanding Young Engineer Award
- Susan Trolier-McKinstry was named an Evan Pugh University Professor
- Christelle Wauthier an NSF CAREER Award for the project, “Numerical Modeling of Volcanic Flank Instability Processes”
Issue Number
2
Issue Label
2020