More than 175 researchers, students and industry professionals from companies and universities around the world gathered at Penn State’s University Park campus Aug. 10-15 for the 20th Annual Conference of the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG). 

The College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering will host its annual research showcase, “Rising to the Challenge,” from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Graduate State College Regency Ballroom in State College.

Improving ventilation in underground mines with large openings is the focus of a new project funded by the Center for Disease Control’s Office of Mine Safety and Health Research.

A team of Penn State researchers will soon have a better understanding of the deformation properties and poromechanical behavior of rock samples containing anhydrite, thanks to a $450,000 Chevron grant. 

Hamid Emami-Meybodi and Michael Cronin were recently awarded the 2019 Cedric K. Ferguson Medal, and Russell Johns was awarded the 2019 Cedric K. Ferguson Certificate from the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) for the best paper published in 2018 in a SPE journal. They were presented with the international awards at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held Sept. 30 to Oct. 2 in Calgary, Canada.

Andrew Kleit, professor of energy and environmental economics at Penn State recently received a United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE) Senior Fellow Award at the USAEE annual conference in Denver, held in November.

The Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Joint Industry Project (JIP) held its 14th Annual Workshop on November 22 on the University Park campus, including a dinner on November 21.

Penn State researchers in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering received a $400,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to research coal dust in underground mines and its effect on lung disease in miners.

Researchers at Penn State are looking at innovative ways to improve energy storage in an effort to better utilize renewable energy technologies.

Hilal Ezgi Toraman, Penn State assistant professor of energy engineering and chemical engineering, has been named the Virginia S. and Philip L. Walker Jr. Faculty Fellow in Materials Science and Engineering and Fuel Science Program. The fellowship was awarded to Toraman for her contributions to teaching, research and service in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering.