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The next generation of high-performance sensors for detecting force that can perform under extreme conditions may soon be a reality thanks to a new project underway at Penn State. The work, led by principal investigator and Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Mingyo “Leen” Park, is funded by a recently awarded two-year, $2 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant through the Higher-Order Composite Resonators for Extra Resilience (HORCREX) program.

Almost 200 million people, including children, around the world have endometriosis, a chronic disease in which the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus. More severe symptoms, such as extreme pain and potentially infertility, can often be mitigated with early identification and treatment, but no single point-of-care diagnostic test for the disease exists despite the ease of access to the tissue directly implicated. While Penn State Professor Dipanjan Pan said that the blood and tissue shed from the uterus each month is often overlooked — and even stigmatized by some — as medical waste, menstrual effluent could enable earlier, more accessible detection of biological markers to help diagnose this disease.

Digby D. Macdonald, an internationally recognized expert in electrochemistry and corrosion science and professor emeritus of materials science and engineering at Penn State, died June 12 in Berkeley, California. He was 82.

The Materials Research Institute, Penn State Global and the National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT) have announced the 2025 Collaborative Seed Grant Program to support joint research projects in materials science and engineering. This initiative is designed to spark new international partnerships between faculty at both institutions, with a focus on high-risk, high-reward research in areas such as functional polymer composites, additive manufacturing, sustainable processes and recycling, materials-enabled thermal management, and quantum packaging. Up to three proposals will be funded, with each selected project receiving $30,000 per institution over a 12-month period.

Two faculty members in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences have been awarded the prestigious U.S.-Africa Frontiers Fellowships by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) to build high-impact research collaboration and strengthen capacity building with African scientists. In addition, three African scientists will be visiting Penn State.

In the heart of Penn State’s University Park campus stands the Millennium Science Complex (MSC), a striking architectural feat that houses the Materials Research Institute (MRI). Beyond its impressive facade, the MSC is a hub of scientific discovery, education, and collaboration, embodying the University’s commitment to advancing materials science for the greater good. 

Ten interdisciplinary research teams have received funding through the Institute of Energy and the Environment’s (IEE) 2025 Seed Grant Program. The program supports basic and applied research that lays the groundwork to pursue external funding and is guided by IEE’s five research themes. This year, the program awarded seed funding to 34 Penn State researchers across seven colleges and 17 departments and units.

The Penn State community mourns the loss of Carlo G. Pantano, a globally respected glass scientist, dedicated educator and former director of Penn State’s Materials Research Institute (MRI), who died on May 31. He was 74.

Silicon is king in the semiconductor technology that underpins smartphones, computers, electric vehicles and more, but its crown may be slipping, according to a team led by researchers at Penn State. In a world first, they used two-dimensional (2D) materials, which are only an atom thick and retain their properties at that scale, unlike silicon, to develop a computer capable of simple operations.

The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Academic Leadership Program (ALP) in 2025-26 will include five new fellows from Penn State. 

The BTAA is the academic consortium of the Big Ten Universities and the United States’ pre-eminent model for effective collaboration among research universities.