Heterogeneous catalysis is a core technology in the bulk and specialty chemical industry. However, we still lack the ability to design or assemble catalysts of arbitrary complexity. In this Café talk, I will summarize our efforts aimed at building catalytic entities of controlled nuclearity and composition and solicit help for exploring new material platforms to realize our catalyst design goals.
There are many challenges of cradle to cradle design in materials science development within an industrial setting. This talk will shed light on some challenges from an industrial perceptive and will provide a few examples of how what may sound easy in theory, isn't always easy in the real world. I’ll highlight a few current challenges from the electronics and packaging markets which Avery Dennison services.
Chuck Williams, PSU Polymer Science 87’ | Senior Technical Director Adhesive Center of Excellence
Humans are having an impact on our planet’s life-support systems - from the climate and oceans to land itself. The magnitude is such that scientists have claimed we are in a new geologic epoch—the Anthropocene—the age of the humans. This represents a pivotal time in both planetary and human history. In response, we must evolve our thinking and designing of industrial production-consumption systems. The most consequential shift is to what is being called the “circular economy”: biomimetic materials and processes that feed either technical or biological nutrient loops. These aren’t “zero waste” systems, but rather perpetually value-adding “nutrient management systems.” This talk will introduce the audience to the “circular economy” and closed-loop systems with key insights from business research, explore a current business example/case study, and offer thoughts on opportunities to be addressed.
Graduate Flute Quartet | School of Music
Join us for a performance of Mike Mower’s Fictions, performed by the Penn State Graduate Flute Quartet. This program provides 3 short descriptive pieces, including a swirling whirlpool in canon-style, a slow harmonically sparse and arid movement, and a crowd of football fans cheering their team on to defeat and then collapsing into bed.
As the world has quickly evolved to embrace leading-edge technologies to improve mankind, how is cancer still a threat to human health? I’ll discuss our recent efforts to see the molecular culprits of human cancer cells with a new set of eyes. We use high-resolution cryo-EM to see native cancer proteins in a manner that allows us to image molecular defects. We expect molecular management plans based on these findings to enable next generation cancer-fighting therapies.
Researchers are subject to all the virtues and vices of being human. Some remain kind and generous even under tremendous pressure, while others become cold, imperious, and contemptuous. In this short talk, I will consider whether there are things we can do to help researchers retain their humility and emotional balance. I also will explore what happens when researchers lose that balance. All of us have moments of anger and resentment, but it is incumbent upon people who purport to be teachers, mentors, and thought leaders to remain people of character, always.