Millennium Café

Do you know how many kWh your home uses every day or the energy content of a gallon of gasoline? How do those amounts of energy relate to 2000 Calories you eat every day, and the amount of CO₂ you emit? The world needs to reduce CO₂ emissions by ~ 1000 gigaton (Gt) of carbon over the next 30 years, but what can you do about that on your own? How does a Gt even make sense in your own life in terms of your energy sources and consumption? The first step understanding these numbers is to quantify the energy you use every day for your home, commute to work, entertainment, and travel.  The second step to make this relevant to climate change is to translate that energy use into CO2 emissions that have meaning to you. In this talk I show how we can easily frame all these numbers based on a bottom line: the energy in food we eat for one day, and how much CO2 we release from eating that food. When energy is expressed using these numbers, we can see how important using a gallon of gasoline is relative to energy use for our home, travel, and all the energy use and carbon emissions that go into just putting that food on the table. 

Rachel Brennan  |  Environmental Engineering

Reversing global warming through Drawdown strategies provides a unifying and motivational theme under which faculty, staff, students, and community members can work together across traditional boundaries, providing inherent opportunities for transdisciplinary collaboration in a variety of sustainability contexts. In this talk, learn how Penn State is infusing Drawdown into research, education, and outreach programs across the university and around the world through our Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus strategic initiative. The presentation will conclude with an overview of the Drawdown Scholars Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, and share how faculty, staff, and students can become involved in 2021.

Madhuri Dey  |  Ozbolat Lab

The tumor microenvironment represents the blood vessels, immune cells, stromal cells, and the extracellular matrix, surrounding a growing tumor, all of which work in conjunction to aid tumor growth. Thus, understanding these complex tumor-stroma interactions is key to developing effective and targeted anti-cancer therapies. This talk will elucidate how 3D bioprinting can be applied to recapitulate this dynamic microenvironment to study various hallmarks of cancer. 

Girish Kirimanjeswara | Veterinary and Biomedical Science

Eva J. Pell ABSL-3 Laboratory for Advanced Biological Research (Pell Lab) has been playing a key role in Penn State’s response to emerging infectious diseases. With a unique combination of in vitro, insect, and animal research capabilities, Pell lab has played a key role in responding to Avian Influenza in 2015, Zika virus crisis in 2016-17, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. With several academic and industry partnerships, current investigations include diagnostics, ant-viral drug discovery, animal models of disease, and host responses to SARS-CoV-2. We are also facilitating surface testing and validation of sterilization methods using various corona virus surrogates and SARS-CoV-2. My talk will briefly introduce Pell lab, describe the ongoing COVID-19 research, and discuss potential opportunities for collaborations.

45 Huck & MRI Graduate Students competed in a Virtual Elevator Pitch Competition on Tuesday June 2^nd. These students received training from Penn State Faculty members Andy Gustafson, Senior Lecturer, Smeal College of Business (Everybody Needs a Virtual Elevator Pitch) and Marcy Milhomme, Assistant Teaching Professor for Continuing Education in Communication Arts and Sciences (Effective Presentation Skills for Virtual Elevator Pitches). 9 industry scientists from PPG, Dow, Corning, and Murata judged the first round of competition. The top 5 pitches will be presented during the Café and YOU will help select the winners via online polling. All 5 finalists will receive prizes. Please join us on June 9^th and vote for your favorite pitch!

Roger Williams, Retired Alumni Association Executive Director, & Clive Randall, Director of the Materials Research Institute

Please join us at 10:00 am on 5/19 for a unique edition of the Millennium Café where we’ll welcome Roger Williams and Clive Randall to discuss “Resilience in Times of Crisis  - Lessons from the First 100 Years in Penn State History.”  As we navigate the challenges and opportunities brought about by our current pandemic, we’ll reflect upon past examples of PSU leaders and strategies, many within the sciences, which brought the University through multiple global crises.  In doing so, the foundations were laid for our transition into a world-class university. This will not be a presentation but rather a dynamic conversation where you will have the opportunity to participate.