Millennium Café

Join us at the HUB on the University Park campus for Materials Day 2024!

Penn State’s ICDS understands that high performance computing is vital to contemporary scientific inquiry. ICDS leads interdisciplinary research through the development and application of innovative methods that tackle problems of scientific and societal importance. In support of research, ICDS provides sophisticated high-performance compute and storage resources and advanced computational and research consulting support. Come learn about these resources and our exciting changes.

Wayne Figurelle  |  ICDS

Cutting carbon emissions requires all hands and all tools on deck. Carbon offsets have gained interest and scrutiny as corporate commitments have led to a surge of investment in nature-based carbon offset projects. Do these deliver real impact? This talk will explore our framework to create high-integrity, socially responsible forest carbon offsets along the 'Atlantic transect' from Pennsylvania to Argentina, addressing dynamic research and educational strategies to empower communities and enhance carbon mitigation and climate adaptation.

Margarita Fernandez & Christopher Scott   |  Ecosystem Science and Management

Wood is an amazing biomaterial and can be used to produce paper, energy, and construction materials. Can we engineer wood to meet or even surpass the toughness and durability of carbon-intensive products like concrete and steel? I will discuss ongoing collaborative research that seeks to generate and characterize advanced materials from Northeastern hardwoods, which cover much of Pennsylvania and represent carbon sinks that can help build the bioeconomy.

Charlie Anderson  |  Biology

Countries across the Global South face water management challenges at both ends of the spectrum: sometimes there is too much water in the case of flooding and at other times there is not enough water to support agriculture and development. This talk will examine how water management decisions – with the examples of dams in sub-Saharan Africa and rice production in India – exacerbate socio-economic vulnerability today and in the future. Ongoing and future research ideas will be presented with the aim of providing evidence to support policy-making in these contexts.

Mook Bangalore  |  School of Public Policy

This talk will introduce the new political-industrial ecology research initiative at the Earth and Environmental Sciences Institute. Political-industrial ecology aims to better embed the resource flows supporting industrial systems, such as energy and agriculture, in their broader political economic and specific geographic contexts. By better understanding the specific ‘ecosystem’ of industrial society, political-industrial ecology can contribute to crafting more environmentally just industrial futures. 

Jennifer Baka  |  Geography