February 21, 2017
Starting in fall 2017, Penn State will launch a new program for students who are interested in helping the cities of today support the world of tomorrow. Study Away Pittsburgh is a 15-credit residential program that provides students with an immersive urban experience while taking classes in person and online. Four information sessions will be held Feb. 23 in the HUB-Robeson Center for students interested in learning more.
February 20, 2017
Africa and agroforestry -- defined as agriculture that incorporates the cultivation and conservation of trees -- are in Penn State professor Michael Jacobson's blood, and the combination has helped shape his career. In turn, the forest economist has played an important role in launching a tree-based biofuel initiative that has major implications for the continent and its millions of subsistence farmers.
February 20, 2017
Researchers at the Justice Center, located in Penn State's College of the Liberal Arts, are exploring multiple options to combat the increasing rates of drug use. One current project is looking to identify distribution networks for illegal and prescription painkillers (opioids) using data from both the Pennsylvania State Police and individual communities, while another project will investigate ways to disrupt the flow of opioids through targeted police action, public outreach, and community partnerships.
February 20, 2017
Penn State Cancer Institute has appointed Jeffrey M. Peters, distinguished professor of molecular toxicology and carcinogenesis in the College of Agricultural Sciences and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State, as its new deputy director, following a national search. As deputy director, Peters will catalyze collaborations among cancer researchers across Penn State’s colleges and campuses and help lead the Cancer Institute’s application for National Cancer Institute designation in 2018.
February 20, 2017
Panelists will share their research in three panel discussions for the Black History Month PSU Scholar’s Program, highlighting scholarship by Penn State faculty members of African descent, this week on Feb. 21 and 22 in Foster Auditorium of Pattee Library on the University Park campus.
February 18, 2017
What looks like a caterpillar chewing on a leaf or a beetle consuming fruit is likely a three-way battle that benefits most, if not all of the players involved, according to a Penn State entomologist.
February 17, 2017
A program developed by Penn State food scientists is training students in Armenia on food safety practices and procedures, with an eye toward improving the safety of the country's food supply chain — from crop production and processing to packaging, handling, marketing and consumption.
February 16, 2017
Pennsylvania produce growers, food processors and animal feed producers preparing to comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) can provide Penn State Extension with input -- via an anonymous survey -- that will help guide the development of relevant educational resources. FSMA establishes regulatory practices that produce farmers, food processors and feed manufacturers must adopt to prevent contamination of fresh produce, processed and manufactured human foods, and animal feeds.
February 16, 2017
Sara Getson came to Penn State and developed an unexpected academic passion — fungi.
February 15, 2017
“Urban agriculture” isn’t a well-known concept, but Sara Touey plans to change that. Touey, a Community, Environment, and Development major in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences interned at the Penn State Center in Philadelphia, studying urban farming.
February 15, 2017
Sheep and meat-goat producers looking for information on how to make their livestock enterprises more profitable can take advantage of two workshops offered by Penn State Extension this winter.
February 14, 2017
Penn State Student Farm Club members recently partnered with the region’s sustainable agriculture community by organizing over 30 hours of educational programming about sustainability for elementary school children. The activity was part of the recent Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s annual conference. Children in kindergarten through fifth grade had the opportunity to learn about protecting the environment, sustainable energy, and nutrition through activities including interactive games, crafts and discussions.
February 13, 2017
WPSU Penn State’s “Women in Science Profiles” features five local women working in STEM-related professions. The series aims to inspire young women to enter STEM-related fields while dispelling misconceptions about STEM professionals and their lives.
February 10, 2017
David Eissenstat, professor of woody plant physiology in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State, has been elected as a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America.
February 10, 2017
A new research analysis provides physicians and patients with new information to help them make difficult decisions about how to treat tumors and infections. The research identifies the factors that determine which of two possible approaches will best improve a patient's outcomes: containing a tumor or infection at tolerable levels, or aggressive treatments aimed at eliminating as much of the tumor or infection as possible.
February 6, 2017
James (Jim) P. Zallie and Helen Zallie, of Lake Forest, Illinois, have pledged $20,000 each year over the next five years to enhance research in the field of sensory science within the Department of Food Science in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.
February 6, 2017
Navigate Education in PA, created by the staff at Penn State's Center for Science and the Schools, is an online database that contains information on more than 4,800 Pennsylvania education agencies, including public, private and charter schools; intermediate units; career and technology centers; and higher education institutions.
February 3, 2017
A University-wide effort to promote the study of microbiomes at Penn State has led to the creation of a center for microbiome research, a fast-growing area of scientific inquiry. Microbiomes are the communities of microorganisms that live on or in people, plants, soil, oceans and the atmosphere.
February 1, 2017
Collin Meyers, a 2010 graduate of the turfgrass science program in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, will accompany the Atlanta Falcons as they take the field at the Super Bowl in Houston on Sunday. Meyers, a State College native, has been a grounds assistant for the Falcons for the past three seasons.
February 1, 2017
The Office of Graduate Educational Equity Programs at Penn State is holding a professional development workshop, "CAREERS: Exploring Options Afforded by a Penn State Graduate Education" from noon to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, in the Faculty Staff Club Room at the Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.
January 31, 2017
What Pennsylvania local governments and their residents need to understand about getting developments such as houses, businesses and community facilities built will be the topic of a web-based seminar offered by Penn State Extension.
January 27, 2017
Representatives from the Penn State Agronomy Club, a student organization in the College of Agricultural Sciences, took first place at the National Forage Bowl competition at the American Forage and Grassland Conference, held Jan. 23-24 in Roanoke, Virginia. The competition requires students to identify forage and weed species and answer questions about many aspects of forages, from seeds to animal health, in a format similar to the popular game show "Jeopardy!"
January 26, 2017
Although Alyssa Gurkis and Hayly Hoch are both students in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, they didn’t know each other when they embarked on a 10-week food-system internship last summer with Penn State Extension-Allegheny County. Now they’re close friends, roommates, and collaborators on a food-system project of their own.
January 26, 2017
Jonathan Lynch, professor of plant nutrition in the College of Agricultural Sciences, was one of 15 Penn State faculty members to be named distinguished professors by the University in January 2017.
January 18, 2017
The Palmer Museum of Art and The Arboretum at Penn State have received a $30,000 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to help support the creation and installation of outdoor sculptures at the Arboretum, June-Oct. 2018. The commissioning project will take place in conjunction with a Palmer Museum of Art exhibition, "Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials," which will be on display in spring 2018.
January 16, 2017
A chemical that is thought to be safe and is, therefore, widely used on crops — such as almonds, wine grapes and tree fruits — to boost the performance of pesticides, makes honey bee larvae significantly more susceptible to a deadly virus, according to researchers at Penn State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
January 16, 2017
The goal of eliminating malaria in countries like India could be more achievable if mosquito-control efforts take into account the relationship between mosquitoes and cattle, according to an international team of researchers.
January 15, 2017
Researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have received a $7 million dollar grant to design a low-cost, integrated system that can identify and screen for high-yielding, deeper-rooted crops. The interdisciplinary team will combine a suite of technologies designed to identify phenotypes and genes related to desirable root traits, with the goal of enhancing the breeding of crop varieties better adapted for nitrogen and water acquisition and carbon sequestration.
January 15, 2017
Seventeen Penn State students, including 13 enrolled in the College of Agricultural Sciences, were among 28 who received scholarships from the Pennsylvania Farm Show Scholarship Foundation during the 101st Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg. The foundation awards scholarships to young people who are registered in a post-secondary educational institution and who have exhibited at the Farm Show. To be chosen, students must exhibit leadership qualities and excellent academic performance, according to the foundation.
January 10, 2017
Penn State researchers have received a $20 million, five-year project with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) looks to create a state-of-the-art framework of computational tools that will help to assess the impacts of weather-related variability and change.
