The Penn State Sustainable Labs Program has concluded its fourth year, continuing to expand its reach across campuses while advancing efforts to reduce the environmental impact of research spaces.

Joshua A. Robinson, professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State, has been named director of the University’s Materials Research Institute (MRI), effective July 1.

Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) recognized exceptional students and faculty for their academic excellence, service and leadership during its annual Wilson Awards Celebration, held on March 29. The Wilson Awards are named in honor of Matthew and Anne Wilson, major benefactors of the college.

When a drought turns into an urban water crisis, a city’s first step is often to limit lawn watering and launch a campaign to encourage everyone to conserve. It might raise water-use rates or offer incentives for installing low-flow devices. While demand management techniques like these have had a lot of success in reducing water use, our new research suggests that they may not be effective enough in the face of climate change.

Registration is now open for the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering’s annual "MINING ROCKS!" summer camp. The camp will be held on Penn State's University Park Campus on July 12–17.

Superconductors — materials that can conduct electricity without energy loss — are crucial for next-generation high-efficiency, ultrafast electronics. However, most superconductors share a critical limitation: they lose their superconducting properties in strong magnetic fields.

Hilal Ezgi Toraman, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering and of chemical engineering at Penn State, is one of five faculty recognized as a rising star in chemical engineering by the journal ACS Engineering Au for her work developing fundamental research on the utilization of pyrolysis — a chemical recycling process that heats plastic waste in an oxygen-free environment to turn it into valuable fuels, chemicals and new plastic feedstock.

Nelson Dzade, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering and chair of the undergraduate energy engineering program at Penn State, recently co-chaired the critical minerals and materials session at the annual National Academies U.S.-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Symposium, held this past February in Dakar, Senegal.

Penn State has named the inaugural Innovation to Impact Awards recipients, recognizing faculty, researchers, entrepreneurs and partners whose work exemplifies the University’s commitment to translating research into real-world impact.

Presented by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research, the awards celebrate achievements in inventorship, commercialization, entrepreneurship and strategic partnerships over the previous year. Honorees were recognized during an awards gala held at the Nittany Lion Inn on March 25.