Thandie Moyo, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering, will give a public talk, “From Ore to Metal: Designing efficient extraction pathways with mineralogical and geochemical precision,” at 4 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 6, in 112 Walker Building at Penn State University Park.

Sarma Pisupati, director of the Center for Critical Minerals (C2M) and professor of energy and mineral engineering and chemical engineering at Penn State, will give a public talk, “Securing Domestic Critical Mineral Supply Chains: Penn State’s Efforts from Lab to Pilot-Scale,” at 4 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 15, in 112 Walker Building at Penn State University Park.

Chandima Sudantha Subasinghe, a doctoral degree candidate in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, received the SME Ph.D. Fellowship grant from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME). The fellowship program is designed to support exceptional students pursuing academic careers in the fields of mining or extractive metallurgy.

Phones, laptops, and electric cars all run on a single silvery metal that is tough to get out of the ground. Conventional techniques roast lithium-rich rocks at blast-furnace temperatures, soak them in acid, and burn through hours of energy, cash, and time. Now, researchers say there is a simpler, faster route that works with little more than water and a pantry-grade chemical.

Nelson Dzade, Virginia S. and Philip L. Walker, Jr. Faculty Fellow in Materials Science and Engineering and the Fuel Sciences at Penn State, recently participated in the African School on Electronic Structure Methods and Applications (ASESMA), held in June at the University of Ghana.

Penn State’s Sustainable Labs Program ushers participating labs through a yearlong certification process, guiding them in implementing sustainable practices across multiple domains, including energy efficiency, waste reduction, water conservation, green chemistry and sustainable purchasing. The program will host a virtual information session from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 18, and from 11 a.m. to noon on Friday, Feb. 21, for those interested in learning more or applying for the next cohort.

Oil produced from shale reservoirs drove record crude output in the U.S. over the past decade, but inefficiencies in extraction often leave as much as 90% of the oil behind, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.