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E arth, Energy and M aterials S cience at Penn State
E arth, Energy and
from.the.dean
Materials Science
at Penn State
In.this.Issue 1 Info-graphics 2 Field Trip Brings Gulf Oil Spill Into Focus for Penn State Students 3 Marcellus Shale Development Includes Opportunities and Challenges 4 Demand is Growing: New Online B.A. in Energy and Sustainable Policy 5 Feature: Science and Society
!
e Welcom
7 Research Project: Petro-SAP & Undergraduates Experience Peru
As dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS), it gives me great pleasure to reinstate a College publication that will provide a constant flow of information to our alumni and friends. We will be providing you with a variety of topics that will keep you connected to the earth, energy and materials science activities and initiatives taking place at Penn State.
We understand the costs involved with producing a publication of this magnitude. However, we recognize that EMS alumni are extremely important partners to the University. You have experienced what EMS has to offer and know the value of a Penn State degree. It is truly worth our time and effort to bring you this valuable resource. So many of the critical issues facing us today—the search for new energy solutions, the sustainability of our planetary resources or the development of materials with breathtaking new properties for construction, energy, medicine and manufacturing—are being tackled by our faculty, staff and students. EMS is recognized as a world leader in addressing those issues. It should be of no surprise, then, that more students than ever are enrolling in EMS, where they find a rich learning environment, one where faculty challenge them to excel in the classroom, in the field and beyond. We want to train today’s students to be the scientific and business leaders of tomorrow. You, as alumni and friends of the College, help us emerge as an international leader in our many diverse disciplines. As we enter a new period in our history, we have set lofty goals for ourselves. We want to help provide the best materials and energy sources and the knowledge for a secure and sustainable planet. Together with you, we want to lay the groundwork for the scientific and educational breakthroughs that will impact all of us for generations to come. Enjoy the read!
Bill
William E. Easterling Dean, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
8
Graduate Research: Climate Change
9 Alumni and Development Update 11 TOTEMS and EMEX 12 THON 13 EMSAGE 14 Comings and Goings 16 Upcoming Events/Visit Us Online
Earth, Energy and Materials Science is a publication of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. Editorial Director: William E. Easterling, Dean Editor: Kelly O. Henry, Director of Communications and Marketing Designer: Morgann E. McAfee, Communications and Marketing Specialist Administrative Fellow: Michael J. Dawson, Writer/Editor, Geography Contributing Authors: Kimberly Del Bright, Giles Writer-in-Residence Margaret Hopkins, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute Penn State LIVE Contact Information: 116 Deike Building University Park, PA 16802 -2710 814-865-6546 (Office) 814-863-7708 (Fax) contact@ems.psu.edu
www.ems.psu.edu This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity, and the diversity of its workforce. U.Ed. EMS 12-01.
1
Field trip brings
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2
Gulf Oil Spill
1896 Obelisk was completed
270 S
our.students
graduate
students
Prior to enrolling in EARTH 297H, everything that Lora Hutelmyer knew about BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico came from national media reports. But the class lectures and discussions combined with a weeklong trip to the Gulf Coast and to Shell facilities in Louisiana gave her a different picture. “It really seemed to me that what I was reading and hearing in the media was inconsistent with what we were seeing down on the ground,” said Hutelmyer, an energy and business finance (EBF) major who graduated in May. Hutelmyer was one of 24 students enrolled in EARTH 297H, “The 2010 Gulf Oil Spill: Science and Ethics of a Natural Catastrophe,” which was designed to give students a framework on which to examine the complex scientific and ethical questions they may face in their professional careers. Offered in fall 2010, the course was co-taught by Tim Bralower, a professor in the Department of Geosciences, and Nancy Tuana, professor in the Department of Philosophy and director of Penn State’s Rock Ethics Institute. “With all of the ethical, political and environmental conflicts involved with this,” Bralower said,” I just thought it would be a really good course to look at the spill from every angle—the geological angle, the ecological angle and the human angle. It’s not just the science but also the social sciences that make this type of course.”
For Hutelmyer, the experience taught her the importance of doing research to fact-check a problem. She recounted what a graduate student at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUM-CON), told the group while they were standing on a boat in a marsh: The beaches and fish populations, he said, will recover much faster than the economy and the public’s perception of deep water drilling. “We didn’t see a drop of oil,” Hutelmyer said, “and we talked with industry professionals, we spoke with unbiased research scientists, we met alligator hunters whose family had lived in the area for generations.”
“This is active learning.”
For Bralower, providing students with the opportunity to see and understand how science and policy need to interact was key. “Going into this, based on news reports over the summer, we had students thinking that the oil companies are rogues and that the people down there had been harmed,” Bralower said. “Our students learned it’s not as simple as that and that people along the coast have a much more philosophical approach to oil and oil spills.” Funding for the field trip was from the College’s Gladys Snyder Education Grant.
In the classroom, Bralower and Tuana brought in speakers to talk about marine biology, ecology, engineering, the history and the social context of the Gulf Region to give the students an expansive view of the issue. But the course also gave students the opportunity to see for themselves the impact of the spill on the Gulf Coast with a field trip from Nov. 13 to 19. Students not only waded through a marsh along the Louisiana coast, but they also visited Shell’s 3-D visualization facility and deepwater command center, took soil samples in the bayou and talked with people who live and work in the region. Megan Carbine, also an EBF major, said she was surprised to find out how much safety training rig workers go through before they can work on offshore oil rigs. The trip to the bayou to learn about cypress forests and why they were being depleted also was eye-opening, she said. “Because I’m essentially a business major, I could see the profit perspective more than other people, and I found myself being torn constantly with profit versus safety, ethics and good business practices,” said Carbine, a rising senior. “It definitely challenged me.”
PHOTO Credits: Megan Carbine & Zach Zimbler
3
the.science.behind.it.all
MARCELLUS Pennsylvania is in the middle of a natural gas boom, as oil and gas producers seek to exploit the estimated one trillion dollar Marcellus Shale play. The Marcellus, whose shale deposits were laid down almost 400 million years ago during the Devonian period, stretches from West Virginia through much of Pennsylvania and into New York State. A second layer of gas-bearing shale, the Utica, lies below the Marcellus, and could be even thicker, possibly five times thicker, and richer in gas.
Geosciences professor Terry Engelder’s announcement three years ago of natural fractures that could boost the amount of recoverable gas in the Marcellus Formation set off a boom in natural gas extraction that has been reshaping Pennsylvania’s rural communities ever since. Nearly 2,500 horizontal wells have been drilled with thousands more expected in the coming years. Development of this resource—one of the largest known shale deposits in the world—has brought new jobs, increased demand for services and retail, and opportunities for start-up businesses to areas of Pennsylvania previously in economic decline. Engelder’s finding, based on 25-plus years of research, also has transformed the national energy picture. Estimates of the amount of recoverable gas in this unconventional gas play are as high as 500 trillion cubic feet—enough gas to meet total U.S. needs for two decades or more at the current U.S. natural gas consumption rate of about 23 trillion cubic feet per year. “Natural gas is a critical resource in a greener energy portfolio that both reduces our carbon footprint and promotes energy independence,” says Michael Arthur, professor of geosciences and co-director of the University’s Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research (MCOR), a joint initiative of the colleges of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, and Penn State Outreach. The gas industry has long known about the organic carbon-rich, black shale of the 385 millionyear-old Marcellus Formation. But these vast reservoirs of natural gas could not be economically developed until recent advances in horizontal drilling and new gas-shale stimulation techniques. Horizontal drilling increases a well’s contact with the shale while hydraulic fracturing releases the gas trapped within the shale.
Shale Development Includes Opportunities & Challenges
by Margaret Hopkins
Today, fine-tuning of drilling technologies together with a better understanding of the geology of the formation are yielding production rates higher than anticipated, and the Marcellus Shale is poised to be the most productive shale play in the nation, according to a 2009 report from the National Energy Technology Laboratory. Besides increasing the nation’s natural gas supply, development of the Marcellus Shale has created local reverberations as rural residents have had to adjust to a different kind of economic activity. Penn State Cooperative Extension educators have responded with extensive outreach programs on topics from landowner rights and leasing to financial planning. The University estimates that in 2010 alone, Extension educators reached in-person more than 80,000 people with Marcellus-related presentations. Thousands more have tuned into TV, radio broadcasts and webinars featuring Penn State educators. Penn State also is a resource for water-treatment and water-quality issues related to natural resource development and specifically to the Marcellus Shale. As the MCOR Extension Associate in the College, David Yoxtheimer, a Penn State alumnus with 18 years of hydrogeologic consulting experiences, advises stakeholders on key environmental issues related to water. “While shale gas uses less water per unit of produced energy as compared to fossil fuels, water-management strategies are critical to ensure protection of this vital resource,” said Yoxtheimer, who also is a geosciences Ph.D. candidate. “Academic research, regulation using best available technologies and industry buy-in can maximize benefits of natural gas development while minimizing environmental impacts.” A comprehensive assessment of baseline water quality both before and after drilling needs to be conducted to address concerns about the industry’s impacts on the Commonwealth’s water resources, Yoxtheimer added. Such an investigation is among the many new research opportunities for University faculty posed by Marcellus Shale development that span a wide range of disciplines including both the social sciences and the physical and natural sciences. With help from MCOR’s seed grant program, for instance, faculty researchers in the colleges of Agricultural Sciences and Education are investigating how families and children are adjusting to Marcellus Shale development and how schools are responding to changing workforce and community conditions.
continued on page 15
online.degree 4
Demand is growing:
New Online B.A. in Energy and Sustainability Policy
As interest in cleaner, renewable energy technologies grows, so does the demand for new policies that enable them. Earth and Mineral Sciences’ new online program in Energy and Sustainability Policy aims to prepare its students to fill that demand with training for policymaking and communication roles in emerging global trends in energy policy, technologies, and economics. “Concerns about global climate change, environmental and economic stability, and energy resource security are driving the need for sustainable planning and policymaking in the energy industry as well as in government,” said Jeffrey R.S. Brownson, the program’s officer and assistant professor in energy and mineral engineering. “Our alumni in the energy industry are telling us Washington (D.C.) is waiting for graduates of this program.” Students will develop energy industry knowledge, a sustainability ethic, analytical and communication skills and a global perspective. The program focuses on client-stakeholder relations, integrative design and decision-making for energy solutions, market and nonmarket business strategies in the energy field, and data visualization techniques. “Our goal is to develop students who understand the energy industry and what it will take to transform it into a sustainable structure,” Brownson said. “Graduates with communication skills, a facility with global business strategies and analyses, and an understanding of the energy industry and sustainability will be in high demand.” For information on the program in Energy and Sustainability Policy, go to: www.worldcampus.psu.edu/energy. Michael J. Orlando (1988 B.S. Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering), is principal of Economic Advisors Inc. and an adjunct professor of finance at Tulane University. He said federal agencies “need people who know the nuts and bolts of energy markets and environmental issues, but also understand how these pieces fit together -- how the various interests involved in global energy markets intersect.” The Energy and Sustainability Policy program is delivered online by Penn State’s World Campus and offered through the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and Dutton e-Education Institute in addition to the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering.
“...an understanding of the energy industry and sustainability will be in high demand .”
5 feature.story
and society
by William E. Easterling
Excerpts from Dean William Easterling’s Commencement Address, May 13, 2011 It is a great privilege and honor to be able to deliver the commencement address to the Class of 2011. Although rare, it is not unprecedented for the dean to give the commencement address for his or her college, and I have several reasons for wanting to be the one to exhort and leave you with some parting thoughts. First of all, thank you for deciding to become scientists and engineers. Your nation badly needs you. Science and engineering are at the heart of the innovation that drives our economy and ensures our nation’s place in the evolving global marketplace. According to the National Academy of Sciences, scientists and engineers make up just 4 percent of our nation’s workforce but disproportionately account for job creation for the other 96 percent of the population. Estimates of the number of engineers, computer scientists, and information-technology students who obtain 2-, 3-, or 4-year degrees vary. One estimate is that in 2004, China graduated about 350,000 engineers, computer scientists, and information technologists with 4-year degrees, while the United States graduated about 140,000. China also graduated about 290,000 with 3-year degrees in these same fields, while the United States graduated about 85,000 with 2- or 3-year degrees. Over the past 3 years alone, both China and India have
doubled their production of 3- and 4-year degrees in these fields, while in the United States, production of engineers is stagnant although the rate of production of computer scientists and information technologists has doubled. With your degree from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, you not only take your place beside the 18,154 other living EMS graduates since the College’s founding in 1930, but more importantly, you also have the opportunity to make a clearly needed and vital contribution to our nation’s future. Secondly, I want you to understand how valuable your publicly funded Penn State degree is to Pennsylvania, the nation, and the world. When President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act of 1862, he changed the face of higher education by creating a system of public universities focused on education in agriculture and the mechanical sciences. Those universities embraced new but critical missions— namely, creating new knowledge through research that addressed societal needs and engaging with the public. As important, because of federal and state support, these universities were able to expand access to higher education from a privileged few to the nation’s entire citizenry. Today, that support still helps Pennsylvania residents receive an affordable and high
quality education at Penn State and its public sibling institutions. Public support also allows those institutions to operate at large enough economies of scale to permit highly specialized degree programs to thrive. Consider meteorology departments in the U.S., for example. Depending on the way they are counted, there are 36, 30 of which are found at public universities, including Penn State’s Department of Meteorology, which ranks among the most elite programs in the nation. To be sure, your own personal gains from a Penn State degree—and especially an EMS degree—are huge. The placement rate for EMS graduates is nearly 100 percent, according to the University’s Career Services. EMS graduates find careers in petroleum and gas companies, engineering and environmental consulting firms, chemical manufacturers as well as in state and federal agencies including NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Geological Survey. With your degree, you will be able to help your communities, your state and your nation increase economic productivity and yes, tax revenues. A college education could earn you as much as $2 million more than the holder of a high school diploma—but the societal benefits are even more significant and lasting. Additionally, you will promote an enlightened citizenry that has greater social co-
hesion and inclusion. You will have the tools to advance the very best of what it means to be an American. Even more fundamentally, however, your education is a public good. Studies have shown that educated citizens are more likely to be engaged in society and to participate in the political process. Because of their educational background, they more easily can understand and process the complex and critical issues facing our nation today—and there are many from water quality and quantity to climate change and energy costs and policies. Furthermore, an enlightened citizenry has the abilities—critical thinking, analytical tools and evaluative skills—along with the global perspective to make the tough decisions needed for our future. I am disturbed by what I perceive as a growing drumbeat of criticism and, worse still, indifference toward public higher education by some people who are frequently in the public eye. Access to an affordable education and the need for institutions of higher learning to respond to today’s complex issues are as critical — if not more critical — to our society’s future than they were in 1862. For these reasons, a public university and the degrees it confers are among the most valuable assets in any state’s treasury. Finally, I want to discuss the vital role that public universities play in creating and advancing knowledge. What do bar code readers, Internet browsers, cloud computing, the physical principles underlying CT scans and MRIs, the chemical role of endorphins in addiction and the discovery that the center of the universe is a black hole have in common? These and many other of humankind’s greatest achievements began as discoveries
in public university laboratories when someone with the skills, the imagination and the freedom to do so asked “Why?” Asking that question for the simple sake of the answer is the most powerful force in the universe because the answer reveals additional information about how nature and the world work. This is the source of original discoveries at the most elemental level, and it happens every day when students and their professors work together. Today you are receiving your degrees from a faculty that routinely performs leading edge research and that imparts much of that knowledge to you in the classroom and in some cases, by involving you in that research. Intellectually demanding and requiring painstaking attention to detail, such research often provides society with fundamental new knowledge for industry to develop the technical innovations that keep our economy competitive and that address the challenging issues of our times. You, the Class of 2011, learned at the feet of masters who often wrote the textbooks used by colleagues in smaller colleges and university classrooms. That is why the fundamental research occurring at public universities is so valuable and deserving of support. Former Columbia University Provost Jonathan Cole contends that what has made our large public universities the envy of the world is more than the quality of the undergraduate education. Our finest universities have achieved international pre-eminence because they produce a very high percentage of the most important and fundamental practical discoveries in the world. And this is where you come in. Your education at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences has prepared you to engage in the social and economic issues facing our communities, regions and states and to promote global awareness, understanding and competitiveness. As you do so, remember the following: First, question dogma. Dogma for its own sake is the intransigent enemy of progress. You have been trained to read and think criti-
cally, and you should exercise those abilities even when you are not on the job. Take a page from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Do not follow where the path my lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.” Second, get involved. One of the unfortunate casualties of the deepening complexity of modern life is less time to devote to community service and other ways of giving back to society. You must reverse this trend. We need your ingenuity, civic mindedness and generosity to build powerful solutions to the problems facing our communities here and around the globe. Third, hold to your convictions. Each of you will be confronted at various times in your lives with difficult decisions at home, work and in your communities. Regardless of popular opinion, political convenience or conventional wisdom, do what you believe is right. But be willing to listen and don’t be afraid to change your mind when new knowledge comes to light. For some bizarre reason, we have labeled flexibility and logic as “flip-flopping.” If reversing course because you have new and better information is flip-flopping, then may you flip-flop like a beached fish! You, the Class of 2011, and I came to the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at the same time, so you are the first full cohort in the College that has known no other dean than me. For that reason, I feel we have a kindred spirit that makes these past four years particularly special. Thank you for the ride—congratulations and Godspeed!
7 research.project/undergraduate.experience
grad.research 8
In light of the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of
Oil Spill Recovery
For four geography undergrads, Spring Break
2011 wasn’t about a week off from class work. Arguably, it was the busiest week of their semester as they set up still cameras to photograph wildlife in Peru’s rain forest, toured the ruins of Machu Picchu and met the Peruvian minister of the environment.
The activities were part of a service-learning field trip to various sites in the South American country as part of the semester-long GEOG 493, “Environmental Issues across the Americas.” The course, led by geography senior scientist Denice Wardrop and research associate Joe Bishop, consisted of classroom instruction before and after the trip with the goal of publishing a scholarly paper based on the students’ research findings. The geography students were seniors Kyle Martin and Andy Stauffer, junior Mallory Henig, and sophomore Jackie Dougherty. Three students from Penn State Altoona also were enrolled in the class, which was in Peru from March 3 to 13. The itinerary had the group visiting the Peruvian rain forest in the Tambopata National Reserve near Puerto Maldonado for the first half of the trip. For the second half, they visited Cuzco and Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains. They did fieldwork on two research projects they developed in class during the weeks leading up to the
Mexico—20 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska—we still have no effective technology for removing, recovering, and cleaning up oil spills or oil slicks from the surface of sea water and shorelines. Despite the government’s "all hands on deck" approach to combating the Gulf Oil Spill, most of the methods used are decades-old, decidedly low-tech, manpower-intensive, some with unknown environmental consequences. Oil spill accidents around the world are actually more frequent than the few highly publicized cases in the United States. Every few years there has been a major oil spill, due to storage tanks and pipes cracking or oil tanker collisions and wrecks. The Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil into the Prince William Sound, but even that did not make the top 10 list of the largest oil spills (the smallest spill on the list was four times larger than that of Exxon Valdez). Indeed, 33 oil spills were measured as larger and more devastating in the past 40 years. At Penn State University, we have developed and patented a new polyolefin-based petroleum
super-absorbent (Petro-SAP) that can effectively transform a maritime oil spill into a floating solid, ready for collection (recovery) and refining as regular crude oil (no waste in natural resources and no disposal issues). After coming into contact with crude oil that contains linear, cyclic, and aromatic hydrocarbons with low and high molecular weights, a half-inch-sized Petro-SAP sample increases its weight by more than 10 times within 10 minutes with a rate reaching 40 times after 12 hours. Its speed and capacity of oil absorption are superior to that of currently-available oil absorbers. The resulting oil swelled Petro-SAP solid is floating on the water surface and can be picked up with tweezers without leaking oil. The combination of good mechanical strength and strong oil affinity ensures its structural integrity, its stability under ocean environments (waves, wind, sunlight, etc.) and its removal from the water surface.
T. C. (Mike) Chung
Department of Materials Science and Engineering chung@ems.psu.edu
Undergraduates Experience Peru
To research potential human impact on wildlife, the group installed two infrared, motion-sensitive cameras along two trails near each lodge to take pictures of wildlife. In both locations, one trail is highly used and the other is less frequently used.
A self-described “city boy,” Justin had never been out of the U.S. until he began field work in Greenland in summer 2009. That trip was also the first time Justin rode in a C1-30 military transport plane, first time in a place with ice, and first time in a helicopter, he said.
“I’ve seen a model of what will happen to coastal cities if the ice sheets melt, and I know this is a huge problem,” says Justin, a master’s student in geosciences.
“But it was awesome—you think once you’ve see one form of ice sheet that you’ve seen them all, but it’s not true.”
For his thesis, Justin is examining two of the dozens of lakes found on glacial surfaces along Greenland’s western margins. He is using GPS and seismic monitoring equipment to determine where those lakes are draining and whether that infusion of water is driving growth of fractures within the glaciers. The flow rates rival Niagara Falls, he said.
“While scientists have observed an increase in ice melting and ice motion during the summer months, we’re trying to figure out whether these lakes increase summer ice movement,” Justin says.
trip. The projects focused on ecotourism and local, small-scale gold mining.
For the ecotourism project, the group’s research looked at human impact on the wildlife presence around two eco-lodges, the Tambopata Research Center (TRC) inside the national reserve, and Posada Amazonas, which is outside the reserve. In all, the group spent two days at each lodge, where tourists stay to see a variety of animals such as macaws, monkeys, giant river otters and caimans, among others.
andy Justin knows firsthand the dangers of sea-level rise. A New Orleans native, he was studying geology at the University of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina flooded his family home with 12 feet of water and wiped out much of the neighborhood where he grew up. So his investigation into how Greenland’s surficial or supra-glacial lakes are draining and whether they are contributing to ice sheet movement and sea-level rise has personal meaning.
Because the lakes are affecting glacial movement into the ocean, he also is tracking how and where the ice is going.
by Mike Dawson
“It was a real privilege being able to perform fieldwork for a professional project of our own design,” Martin said. “Bridging the gap between the classroom and real life application was a great experience for all of us. ”
R
The overarching research question asks if there is a relationship between the trail use and wildlife sightings, and if so, if the relationship is similar when comparing the two lodges. So far, the cameras have snapped photos of wildlife including a puma, jaguar, tapir, peccary, agouti, guan and red brocket deer. The cameras will keep taking photos until the end of the semester when the cameras will be donated to the lodges. For the gold mining research, the group interviewed locals who were familiar with the legal and illegal gold mining activities in the area of Puerto Maldonado. The resulting project will be a question-and-answer article on how the students’ perspectives have changed on the issue of small-scale gold mining after interviewing locals knowledgeable on the topic.
By Margaret Hopkins
Now he has twice been to Greenland as well as spent two months in Antarctica, “the coldest, driest place in the world,” he said.
Justin first came to Penn State as part of the Graduate School’s Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) in summer 2006. Initially interested in seismology related to oil and gas exploration, he was assigned to work with Sridhar Anandakrishnan, professor of geosciences, whose expertise is glaciology, ice-stream migration and Antarctic ice sheets and Antarctic tectonics. When Anandakrishnan, who is Justin’s advisor, showed him sea-level rise models, he was hooked. Justin’s polar experiences have made him the “resident global warming expert” among family and friends, and he said he frequently is asked whether climate change is real. “A lot of people test me, but I tell people what I’ve seen, and I tell them about what I call ‘global
weirding’—weird things happening because of global warming,” Justin says. “Then I break down what is happening, and they begin to understand.” The youngest of four children, Justin will be the first in his family to receive an advanced degree. He hopes to graduate in August. As for his future, he’s debating whether to pursue a doctorate or work in the oil and gas industry. Prior to graduate school, he spent a year at ExxonMobil in Houston in the geosciences computing division where he engaged in mapping, geological modeling, GIS, seismic interpretation and visualization. “Being here has been eye opening and life changing,” Justin says. “I have exceeded my own personal expectations, and my dreams have expanded considerably. When you don’t know what’s out there, your dreams tend to be limited by your knowledge.” “But I know now there’s a world of opportunities out there, and I’ve learned to say, ‘yes.’”
9 alumni.and.development
Gifts
Joel N. Myers, the founder, president and chair of AccuWeather Inc. and current Penn State trustee and alumnus, has committed $2 million to help ensure Penn State’s continued international leadership in meteorology. The gift supports the Department of Meteorology’s weather center including its new facility on the sixth floor of Walker Building on the University Park Campus. In recognition of Myers’ generosity, the new weather facility is named “The Joel N. Myers Weather Center.” “I’ve served as a University Trustee for nearly 30 years, and I have seen time and again how major gifts can transform entire programs,” Myers said. “In this case, Penn State’s meteorology program has been ranked among the nation’s best. My aim is to ensure its continued prominence, and to help lift it to even higher levels of achievement.”
The Leone leadership gift of $5 million is the largest from an individual or couple in the history of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. This gift will enable the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering to create such opportunities as a faculty chair, undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships. This commitment will have a wide and lasting impact by providing a significant pool of resources to foster an innovative program that brings together engineering and business education. “We are pleased to make this commitment, which provides a foundation for a program in the College, integrating engineering and business disciplines,” John Leone said. “I’m confident that graduates of this program will possess distinctive skills that will benefit their careers, industry and the University.”
2000s
Transitional E M S
The College celebrated the completion of the new Deike Building Entrance Plaza recognizing Helen Lee Henderson for being a catalyst that stimulated this improvement. Helen is a granddaughter of George H. Deike for whom the Building is named. John A. Dutton, Dean Emeritus of the College, served as the Master of Ceremonies for the event. George Deike was widely recognized and acclaimed for his lifelong leadership in mine safety. The building was named for Mr. Deike in 1967, honoring his active involvement with Penn State throughout his career. Like Mr. Deike, our graduates in the EMS professions are vital to the economy, to our daily activities and to understanding the planet on which we live.
Patrick J. Flynn ('01 B.S. Environmental Systems Engineering and '03 M.S. Geo-Environmental Engineering), has received the 2011 Penn State Alumni Achievement Award. The award recognizes alumni who have reached an extraordinary level of professional accomplishment by the age of 35 or younger. Flynn is the founder/CEO of Enersol, Inc. and an environmental engineer with Environmental Resources Management (ERM).
1990s
2010-11
Alumni Achievements
David McGinnis (’94 Geography) was named a program director for geography and spatial services at the National Science
1960s & 70s
At its heart, this is a campaign for Penn State students to enable the next generation and succeeding generations of our graduates to realize their full potential as individuals to sustain their families, to advance their professions and to contribute to our country’s strength. It is also a campaign to enable Penn State to realize its full potential as an institution to create prosperity, to keep our nation competitive, and to enhance quality of life. All of the campaign’s objectives are directed toward a single vision: advancing the frontiers of learning at the most comprehensive, student-centered research university in America. For the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, the campaign will allow us to remain at the forefront of both innovative teaching and path-breaking research, while meeting the needs of a global society. Within the University-wide campaign objectives, we must empower our students to discover their own abilities, while providing them with the latest scientific knowledge of change in the global environment and society—and teach them how best to manage these changes.
Penn State in the White House
Air Force Lt. Col. Sam Price (B.S. Meteorology 1995) accompanied President Barack Obama during his visit to Penn State to unveil a plan for energy innovation in commercial building space. Price, a military aide to the President and the Air Force’s representative on Air Force One, was introduced by President Obama to the crowd at Rec Hall before the speech began. President Obama said he chose Penn State to unveil the plan, the Better Buildings Initiative, because of the energy innovation research being done here. In addition to giving the speech, President Obama toured energy research labs on campus. For more information about the visit, see http://live.psu.edu/story/51177.
Richard C. J. Somerville (’61 Meteorology), distinguished professor with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, was selected to receive the Distinguished Alumni Award, Penn State’s highest award for an individual alumnus.
Foundation. McGinnis was most recently a research administrator at Montana State University. He is a climatologist with interests in complexity theory, coupled natural-human systems, and ecosystem-climate interactions.
George R. Desko ('67 Mining Engineering) received the Society of Mining, Metullargy and Exploration (SME) Pittsburgh Section Distinguished Member Award. The award is presented to "a select few individuals in the section who have distinguished themselves by demonstrating significant and sustained contributions to the minerals industry and SME." Desko is currently Chairman of Desko Enterprises. Gregory Yurek (’69 and ’70 Metals), Founder, Chairman of the Board and President and CEO of American Superconductor Corporation, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. His citation reads “for engineering and leadership in development of high-temperature superconductor products.”
Jeffrey L. Kohler ('74 B.S. Engineering-Science, '77 M.S., '83 Ph.D. Mining Engineering) received the SME Pittsburgh Section Distinguished Member Award. The award is presented to "a select few individuals in the section who have distinguished themselves by demonstrating significant and sustained contributions to the minerals industry and SME." Kohler is the Associate Director for Mining, and the Director of the Office of Mine Safety and Health Research at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Scanning the QR code using your smart
phone to submit your achievements now.
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We want to promote all the success stories in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Please notify us of your professional accomplishments by filling out the following webform:
www.ems.psu.edu/success
THON
11 totems.and.emex
ce Just De afnor success:
TOTEMS S’mores, anyone? There’s no fire here, but this group of incoming freshmen was tasked with acting out a “campfire” as part of an icebreaker during a get-to-know-you retreat at Raystown Lake last summer. The trip, Total Orientation to Earth and Mineral Sciences, or TOTEMS, brought together 96 of the College’s incoming freshmen, 30 junior and senior student mentors, as well as faculty, staff and alumni. The orientation has been a tradition in the College since 2004, and faculty member Jeffrey Warner serves as coordinator for the TOTEMS activities. One of the perks to TOTEMS is that students move into their dorms a few days early and are then bussed to cabins at Raystown Lake near Huntingdon, Pa. They have the opportunity to meet fellow students, make friends even before classes begin, and network with successful faculty and alums. Other activities included midnight mini-golf, boating and a dinner sponsored by the Graduates of Earth and Mineral Sciences (GEMS), the College’s alumni society.
EMEX
Rachel Lucas (meteorology) talks to a prospective student about Student Council and other activities during Earth and Mineral Sciences Exposition (EMEX) in February. More than 200 prospective undergraduate students and their families attended the annual recruiting event. For the prospective students, EMEX activities included an optional overnight stay in Irvin Hall with a current student, info sessions on EMS departments, meet-and-greets with alumni, lab demonstrations and a campus tour. Dean Easterling’s opening remarks highlighted the student-tofaculty ratio and the top 10 national rankings of the five departments. EMEX is organized and put on by the undergraduates of EMS. “It was the reason I came to Penn State,” says Steven Curtis, EMS Student Council president. “I loved how students felt connected to the College.” – KIMBERLY DEL BRIGHT
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12
13 e.m.s.a.g.e
comings.and.goings first learned of graduate opportunities at Penn State in 1985 when she was leading a group of high-ranking international visitors on a U.S. State Department-organized tour of Pennsylvania.
highest academic honor,
the EARTH and Mineral Sciences Academy for Global Experience,
or EMSAGE, at the end of spring 2011 semester.
At the time, Lyons was directing an ethnic studies center for teachers at Columbia University, but she had her eye on doctoral study. Encouraged by William Henson, then the coordinator of graduate student recruitment for the College of Agricultural Sciences, she moved to State College that fall, intending to earn her doctorate and leave.
T
he first class of EMSAGE laureates was inducted at commencement in the Spring 2009 semester, and to date, the College has graduated 69 laureates. EMSAGE encourages students to achieve noteworthy success in scholarship, experiential learning, global literacy and service. Laureate graduates receive satisfaction on having performed “a cut above,” which is an outstanding honor in this academically competitive College. Thanks to the generous endowment of Vaughn and Harriett McDonald, we are making great strides in the EMSAGE program. Most recently, the development of the EMSAGE Student Research Initiative Award will help to support individual students who have research projects that incur travel expenses.
Instead she stayed, and last fall, Lyons retired after more than 25 years at Penn State that included stints in the College of Agricultural Sciences, the Graduate School and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Most recently, she served as EMS’s associate dean for educational equity, a position she was the first to fill.
www.ems
Lyons’ Career Dedicated to Promoting Diversity
Catherine Lyons
25 undergraduates joined the ranks of the College’s
.psu.edu/ EM
SAGE
“My undergraduate career has taken me hiking in the Apennines, scuba diving on coral reefs and into the darkness of a frigid cave system in Pennsylvania. While these individual adventures may not constitute a well-rounded scientist, four years of study and a multitude of learning and research opportunities certainly do. The decision to enter the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences majoring in geosciences happened almost by chance. Fortunately, this lucky decision has ultimately led to my graduation as department marshal and continuing on to graduate school.” Brittany Grimm, Geosciences
“Within just one year, I went from studying environmental issues in isolated rural villages with no electricity or running water, to working for a multinational oil corporation in a bustling American city. I had written a report for my classes in South Africa on the sustainable collection of fuel wood used for cooking and heating in tiny thatch-roofed huts—and just a few weeks later, I was sitting next to a senior trader who had locked in a cargo trade of oil for $2 million. By the time I returned back to school to start my senior year, I had to stop and ask myself: Wait, seriously . . . what just happened?” Lora Hutelmyer, Energy Business and Finance
In each of those positions, Lyons developed programs aimed at recruiting and retaining students and faculty from underrepresented groups. By her count, she has worked with hundreds of students, many of whom were the first in their families to attend college or to earn graduate degrees.
14
By Margaret Hopkins
Along with keeping a close eye on students’ academic performance, the office runs an informal mentoring program whereby prospective and new students are paired with current students. Lyons also strives to stay in contact with parents. “We develop a relationship with students and their families even before they enroll,” Lyons said. “It’s important for students and their parents to see that level of involvement.” With office staff and EMS faculty, Lyons has strengthened EMS’s partnerships with several Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as part of the College’s initiatives to recruit academically talented students from underrepresented groups for graduate school.
“There are all kinds of issues that come up for students, so it’s key to help students process what happens and come up with strategies to work through the issues,” Lyons said. “It’s always a collaboration, a discussion of strategies.”
Her visits to those schools have benefited AfricaArray, a public-private initiative to build a scientific workforce in Africa, says Andrew Nyblade, professor of geosciences and co-director of the international program. AfricaArray offers summer research opportunities in Africa to American underrepresented minority students.
The youngest of nine children, Lyons grew up in Abbeville, S.C., a largely agricultural community where people were quick to help each other. As the head of the EMS Office of Educational Equity, she has drawn on that foundation to build a similar sense of community among EMS students.
“She gets students excited about coming here,” Nyblade says, “and once here, she puts tremendous efforts into working one-on-one with them— getting involved in their lives, building community, helping them succeed. Those personal aspects are really critical in making our program work.”
Lyons has not confined her efforts to recruiting graduate students. Along with spearheading a week-long science program for youths in Philadelphia, she has worked with an EMS alumna to introduce high school students from Washington, D.C., to the College. While Lyons eventually expects to settle in Charlotte, N.C., she initially will return to New York City and work with several charter schools. She also will continue developing programs for international visitors through the U.S. State Department. But first on her to-do list was to attend the inauguration of M. Christopher Brown II, whom Lyons worked with when he was a graduate student in higher education at Penn State. He will be the 18th president of Alcorn State University in Mississippi. “In the final analysis, our contribution to the world is measured in the interactions we have, in our work with others,” Lyons said. “Whatever road you travel, you always take other people with you.” Cathy Lyons
Former Associate Dean for Educational Equity
Comings and Goings New Faculty
Retirements
Shaunna Barnhart, Instructor, Geography Vera Cole, Senior Lecturer, Dutton e-Education Institute Elizabeth Hajek, Assistant Professor, Geosciences Roman Engel-Herbert, Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering Russell T. Johns, Professor, Energy and Mineral Engineering Ryan Koseski, Research Associate, Materials Science and Engineering Samuel Oyewole, Assistant Professor, Environmental Health and Safety Jay Parrish, Professor of Practice, Dutton e-Education Institute Ronald D. Redwing, Associate Dean Educational Equity Brandi Robinson, Lecturer, Dutton e-Education Institute Anastasia Shcherbakova, Assistant Professor, Energy and Mineral Engineering Ryan Walker, Research Associate, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute
C. Gregory Knight, Professor, Geography Catherine G. Lyons, Associate Dean, Educational Equity Harold H. Schobert, Professor, Energy and Mineral Engineering and EMS Energy Institute
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S c hol a r Other MCOR seed grants have facilitated research in new methods of road construction to accommodate high volumes of truck traffic and in the development of best practices for pipeline siting to minimize the environmental footprint of Marcellus development.
Medal
“Penn State has considerable research and outreach capabilities relevant to unconventional gas shales and their energy, environment, and community impacts, and MCOR is focusing this expertise to address the opportunities and challenges of this emerging global energy resource,” said Tom Richard, director of Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment. “Given the world’s increasing demand for energy, responsible development of these resources is critical. Penn State has the people and the potential for global leadership in this area.”
The George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, named for the seventh president of the University (1882-1906), is presented each year to four faculty members who have devoted substantial effort to undergraduate teaching. EMS faculty claimed achievements for two of these awards. Richard Brazier, associate professor of mathematics and geology, Penn State DuBois and Earth and Mineral Sciences, Geosciences. According to one nominator, Brazier is “an educator in the fullest sense of the word, taking advantage of opportunities to promote learning to students and faculty alike.” A member of the Penn State DuBois faculty since 1999, he currently serves as head of the mathematics department and program leader of the Earth Science Program. In teaching a variety of mathematics and earth science courses, he applies his philosophy that “enjoyment and learning go hand in hand” by way of a range of delivery methods, including various classroom technologies, problem-oriented projects and field studies. One former student said Brazier’s “teaching style and honest concern for the educational success of his students made his classes interesting and enjoyable.”
Several ongoing research initiatives in EMS are focused on developing more efficient and sustainable extraction methods that both improve production technologies and reduce impacts on Pennsylvania natural resources. Through the Appalachian Basin Black Shales research group, Arthur, Engelder and Rudy Slingerland— all professors of geosciences—are developing a detailed geologic model of the Marcellus Formation that has the potential to increase production and decrease treatment of water used during drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Materials research by John Hellmann, the College’s associate dean for education, has resulted in the development of alternative materials for proppants— the small, strong, chemically inert materials that ‘prop’ open Marcellus Shale fractures, so the gas can flow more efficiently into the well. These proppants not only promise an increase in gas production, but because they re-use byproducts including glass and drill cuttings that would otherwise be landfilled, they also will reduce the waste stream.
2011 Penn State Faculty/Staff Award Recipients Announced
Chunshan Song’s contributions to fuel science and catalysis have been called “brilliant and prolific.” Among them: developing new approaches for removing sulfur by selective adsorption for ultra-clean liquid fuels, developing new approaches for designing sulfur and carbon resistant catalysts, and a new process known as tri-forming of natural gas using carbon dioxide in flue gas as a method to produce industrially useful syngas. He has written more than 190 refereed publications in journals and received the American Chemical Society’s Henry Storch Award in Fuel Science in 2010. Song, a distinguished professor of fuel science in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and the director of the EMS Energy Institute, received a 2011 Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering.
www.energy.psu.edu
Kamini Singha, associate professor of geosciences, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Singha’s learning goals are, in a large sense, for students to improve their quantitative skills and their ability to communicate science with the public. “It is important to me,” she said, “that students see the relevance and application of their course subject material to real life.” Since joining the geosciences faculty in 2005, Singha has taught a range of classes, including the Hydrogeophysics Field Experience, first offered in summer 2009. The class includes Penn State undergraduates and students from three historically black universities. It combines numerical modeling with field data collection and analysis, and provides an integrated experience for students interested in solving complex, real-world problems. A former student said the field experience “provided me with a thorough understanding of basic geophysics and lasting relationships with friends/ colleagues at other universities.”
EMS Faculty Awarded
Fulbright Scholarships The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the United States government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. Fulbright awards ensure our faculty stay abreast in their disciplines and enable the pursuit of relevant research opportunities. Four faculty members in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences were recently awarded this honor, including Anne Thompson, professor of meteorology (South Africa); Tim Bralower, professor of geosciences (Australia); Sridhar Anandakrishnan, professor of geosciences (India) and Thaddeus Ityokumbul, associate professor of mineral processing and geo-environmental engineering (Nigeria). Penn State ranks among the top three universities that receive Fulbright grants on an annual basis.
Upcoming Events Below is a listing of upcoming events that may provide you with an opportunity to plan a future visit to Penn State and to reconnect with the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
Aug. 16-19
Total Orientation to Earth and Mineral Sciences (TOTEMS) 2011
Sept. 3
PSU vs. Indiana State
Sept. 10
PSU vs. Alabama
Sept. 16-17
Parents & Families Weekend
Sept. 22
GEMS Seminar hosted by the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering
Sept. 23-24 Sept. 24
Obelisk Weekend GEMS Tailgate PSU vs. Eastern Michigan
Oct. 8
PSU vs. Iowa
Oct. 15
PSU vs. Purdue (Homecoming)
Oct. 29
PSU vs. Illinois
Nov. 12
PSU vs. Nebraska
Visit us online! John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering
Anne Thompson
www.eme.psu.edu
Department of Geography
www.geog.psu.edu
Tim Bralower
While making arrangements to attend one of these events, don’t forget to contact our Director of Alumni Relations:
Colleen Swetland,
swetland@ems.psu.edu (e-mail) 814-863-4660 (office)
Sridhar Anandakrishnan
We would be happy to give you a tour of the College facilities and introduce you to our current faculty and staff. Hope you are enjoying your summer!
Department of Geosciences
www.geosc.psu.edu Department of Materials Science and Engineering
www.matse.psu.edu Department of Meteorology
www.met.psu.edu
Dutton e-Education Institute
www.e-education.psu.edu Earth and Environmental Systems Institute
www.eesi.psu.edu EMS Energy Institute
...for the glory Thaddeus Ityokumbul
www.energy.psu.edu
www.ems.psu.edu
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