eNews Archive 2013

Zuleima Karpyn, associate professor and Quentin E. and Louise L. Wood Faculty Fellow in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering will serve as the interim director of the EMS Energy Institute for one year while Director Chunshan Song is on sabbatical leave. Dean Easterling, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, announced that Dr. Karpyn’s appointment will officially begin July 1, 2013.

Last year Professor Angela Lueking was awarded a highly competitive Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship to partner with researchers at the University of Crete to study basics of hydrogen adsorption and diffusion on surfaces. The Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship is open to top non-European researchers to work on projects in Europe. The fellowship helps to develop research cooperation between Europe and other parts of the world.

Gareth Mitchell is a geologist. As an associate researcher at Penn State, the 61-year-old can still be found out in the field, collecting samples and doing research on coal. 

“I'm a hands-on kind of fellow," he says. "I don’t mind getting dirty and doing the hard work.” 

He also likes working with his feet. On ice, particularly.

Sijuola Odumabo, a graduate student in petroleum and natural gas engineering received 3^rd place at the 2013 Graduate Exhibition for her poster. The poster, “Gas Flow Hindrance Fracturing Fluid Invasion in Low Permeability Sandstones,” highlights work she is doing at the EMS Energy Institute. Odumabo’s advisor is Zuleima Karpyn, associate professor, petroleum and natural gas engineering.

Bringing together one of the largest contingents of natural gas experts in the United States, Penn State has established an Institute for Natural Gas Research (INGaR), which is expected to provide much-needed study into this important form of energy.