Millennium Café

Dan Cahoy | Research Director, Smeal Center for the Business of Sustainability

Sustainability research at the Smeal College has reached new levels of activity. Our work responds to a substantial upsurge in interest in the business community; firms that previously treated sustainability as window-dressing now consider it essential to their operations and investors increasingly demand an “ESG” focus. However, the business community’s understanding of sustainability must be better informed by science and engineering disciplines to satisfy its stakeholders. This discussion highlights areas for collaboration and invites future conversations on making business more sustainable with science.

Faculty from several departments are in the middle stages of developing a research and education center focused on advancing catalysis science at Penn State. While our initial efforts will be in coordinating and enhancing research programs in heterogeneous and electro-catalysis (and the associated materials research needs), we are looking for strategic opportunities to collaborate with research faculty and staff across campus. We are particularly interested in identifying areas where catalysis science might provide unique insight into materials and surface chemistry questions.   

Andrew Read | Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences & Phil Bevilacqua | Department Head, Chemistry

We are very excited to announce a call for projects to enable transformative research at the interface of chemistry and life sciences. This initiative is generously supported by the Benkovic Family Foundation and administered by Department of Chemistry in the Eberly College of Science and Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. We will give a short overview of the call. Proposals must have potential for rapid and high impact at the broad intersection of chemistry and the life sciences. Deadline Nov. 1, 2021.

The Convergence Center for Living Multifunctional Material Systems (LiMC²) is a strategic research and educational partnership between The Pennsylvania State University and University of Freiburg.  LiMC² envisions a new paradigm using biological rules and bioinspired approaches to develop materials for resilience, adaptability, and energy harvesting, with the goal of enhancing materials sustainability and broadening the educational mission around academic convergence and global engagement.

Additive manufacturing and 3D printing technology has been around for several decades, but recent advances in materials and processing technology have renewed interest in design, modeling, analysis, and characterization of new materials, parts, and processes that leverage these new capabilities. From novel functionally graded materials to 3D printed ceramics and concrete houses to bioprinting replacement organs, the sky is the limit when it comes to additive materials and manufacturing. 

Sherri Mason | Chemistry | Sustainability Coordinator | Penn State Behrend

Plastic is an amazingly versatile material, whose ever increasing use combined with its durability has led to an ecological crisis. I will highlight some recent work on plastic pollution within freshwater and human consumables. Addressing these challenges requires interdisciplinary expertise and I’m interested in making new connections within Penn State.