Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences

10/15/2026

How does turbulence in the lowest part of the atmosphere impact which supercell thunderstorms produce tornadoes?

Meteorology faculty Paul Markowski, Kevin Bowley, Yvette Richardson and George Bryan will team up on a $1M, three-year NSF grant to analyze realistic computer simulations paired with observations of supercells to determine how turbulence impacts tornado formation.

“Supercells, and subsequently tornadoes, can form under a range of conditions linked to how unstable the atmosphere is and how the winds change with height,” Bowley said. “By exploring a diversity of conditions, we can test whether this turbulence mechanism is a primary mechanism for all conditions or just some conditions.”

Supported by a new three-year, $1,099,777 grant, researchers in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences will investigate what triggers some storms to produce tornadoes — and when — with the goal of improving forecasts.

10/14/2026

Electronic waste, or e-waste, is one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world and one of the richest secondary resources for critical and strategic materials, according to a top critical minerals researcher at Penn State.

Mohammad Rezaee, co founder of Intel-E-Waste, a startup whose technology builds on foundational research from Penn State, is leading a national program designed to strengthen domestic supply chains for critical and strategic metals.

Researchers will use this $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore solutions to two problems: electronics recycling and critical minerals sourcing.

In the United States, most e-waste is processed through systems built primarily around bulk material recovery. Those systems can recover high-volume commodities such as steel, aluminum and copper, but many critical and valuable materials are present in small concentrations and can be diluted, downgraded or lost during conventional processing.

“Our goal is to help build an end-to-end domestic pathway for critical materials by converting the tsunami of e-waste and the upcoming wave of end-of-life solar panels into high-value feedstocks for U.S. manufacturing,” Rezaee said. “We are doing this by utilizing the existing recycling and refining infrastructure and adding the missing transformation steps needed to recover and upgrade materials that are currently diluted or lost.”

Old electronics and solar panels could become a new, domestic source for critical and strategic materials through Intel-E-Waste, a startup whose technology builds on foundational research from Penn State.

10/09/2026

LionGlass, a completely new formulation of glass at Penn State, is special because it's lighter, stronger and much more sustainable than conventional glass. But it's even more special when it's being created by the Nittany Lion, where this new glass gets its name.

The Nittany Lion recently visited our glass research lab at Penn State to chat with LionGlass co-inventors John Mauro and Nicholas Clark. The Nittany Lion seemed particularly impressed that this new formulation of glass uses no carbon in the process and is created using half the energy of existing glass. It's a drop in replacement for conventional glass that's used in everything from beverage containers to windows.

10/08/2026

10/07/2026

Are you interested in how those pesky mosquitos have shaped our lives and also how we've shaped theirs?

Kara Fikrig, assistant professor of entomology at Penn State, will deliver the talk “Understanding the Distribution of Invasive Mosquitoes Across the Landscape — And the Human Role in Shaping It” at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9, in 112 Walker Building at University Park and also on Zoom.

Fikrig’s research focuses on invasive mosquitoes and how people and landscapes influence where they spread.

Fikrig will explain how human travel and changes to the environment are helping the mosquitos reach rural areas, where its expanding range is contributing to dengue transmission beyond the cities where the disease has historically been concentrated.

Kara Fikrig, assistant professor of entomology at Penn State, will deliver the talk “Understanding the Distribution of Invasive Mosquitoes Across the Landscape — And the Human Role in Shaping It” at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 9 in 112 Walker Building at University Park and via Zoom. Fikrig will discuss ho...

10/06/2026

10/04/2026

As an undergraduate student, Lizzie Johnson conducted volcano research on the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua. We don't know a lot about its complex magma storage systems and 2 million people live nearby, so it's an important area of research for volcanologists.

Lizzie graduated in May and now works on volcano research in Hawaii, but she just published research on the Masaya Volcano. Lizzie used geospatial geodetic data — many data points of ground deformation over a long period of time by a satellite — to track how the ground moved like breathing lungs over time.

“These observations help scientists better understand how magma moves beneath Masaya and may improve monitoring and eruption forecasting in the future,” Lizzie said.

Lizzie's findings were just published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Masaya volcano in Nicaragua sits within 13 miles of 2 million people and is a popular tourist destination due to its lava lake. Penn State researchers recently found evidence of two new magma sources under the active volcano, highlighting what they called the critical importance of understanding tra...

10/01/2026

Are you interested in how local food prices and SNAP benefits impact food security in your neighborhood? Check out this free talk that's at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 14, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State’s University Park campus.

Luyi Han, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Penn State will discuss the supplemental food assistance program (SNAP) and how the safety net isn't the same for everyone.

“SNAP benefits are fixed across 48 states, but local food prices vary, leading to geographic variation in the or purchasing power,” Han said. “This study examines how local variation in SNAP purchasing power affects food insecurity and health among U.S. adults.”

The event is part of a fall seminar series hosted by the Initiative for Energy and Environmental Economics and Policy (EEEPI).

Luyi Han, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Penn State, will give the talk “Local food prices, SNAP purchasing power, and food insecurity,” at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 14, in 157 Hosler Building on Penn State’s University Park campus.

09/30/2026

Renewable energy technologies are, in part, an effort to slow the impact of climate change.

Yet, a changing climate is impacting the reliability and effectiveness of these energy sources, our assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering Renee Obringer says.

Obringer will give the talk “Understanding climate change impacts on renewable energy: Insights from explainable AI” at 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, in 117 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building at University Park. The talk will also be available via Zoom.

Obringer, who is also a faculty associate in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, will present a series of studies aimed at understanding this feedback loop through data-driven modeling.

Renee Obringer, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State, will give the talk “Understanding climate change impacts on renewable energy: Insights from explainable AI” at 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, in 117 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building on the University Park camp...