All News

Additive manufacturing technology, also known as 3D printing, provides the opportunity to create customized medical devices. However, the capabilities to design and print the smart, flexible materials this type of equipment requires remain lacking, according to researchers at Penn State and The University of Texas at Austin.   

Just about a year into her Penn State experience, second-year geosciences student Grace Druschel felt she already was making strides toward her research goals. Better yet, she was working on something she believes has extreme societal importance.

Perovskites, a family of materials with unique electric properties, show promise for use in a variety fields, including next-generation solar cells. A Penn State-led team of scientists created a new process to fabricate large perovskite devices that is more cost- and time-effective than previously possible and that they said may accelerate future materials discovery.

A new form of a heterostructure of layered two-dimensional (2D) materials may enable quantum computing to overcome key barriers to its widespread application, according to an international team of researchers.  

The coming decades present a host of challenges for our built environments: a rising global population combined with increasing urbanization; crumbling infrastructure and dwindling resources to rebuild it; and the growing pressures of a changing climate, to name a few.

The 15th annual Materials Visualization Competition (MVC15) is now accepting submissions. The deadline for submissions is March 15.

The event is an annual scientific and artistic visual competition sponsored by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Materials Research Institute at Penn State.

Advances in computing power over the decades have come thanks in part to our ability to make smaller and smaller transistors, a building block of electronic devices, but we are nearing the limit of the silicon materials typically used. A new technique for creating 2D oxide materials may pave the way for future high-speed electronics, according to an international team of scientists.

Six new Penn State faculty members have joined the Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE). The researchers represent four Penn State colleges: the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; the College of Engineering; the College of Health and Human Development; and the College of Medicine. 

The researchers in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences are Ida Djenontin, Nutifafa Yao Doumon and Stephanie Law.

For Haley Sankey, assistant teaching professor of energy and sustainability policy, it was a teacher’s humor, patience and ability to empower that inspired her to become an educator. For Jim Adair, professor of materials science and engineering, it was the ability to put pressing civil rights events into context. For Ken Davis, professor of atmospheric and climate science, it was the teacher’s knack to challenge and demand excellence. Jesse Reimink, assistant professor of geosciences, learned the importance of geosciences and the value of communicating that passion.

As an international perfumer and senior majoring in materials science and engineering at Penn State, Tianyou Lou sees parallels between the two disciplines. After all, the creation of both fragrances and materials are traced back to producing a specific thing with unique and tailored properties using a nearly infinite number of source materials.