alumni News

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.

When optical networking company Infinera was acquired by telecommunications giant Nokia in early 2025, it was hailed as a strategic move that would solidify Nokia’s leadership in data transport technology. But behind this $2.3 billion deal lies a story of innovation that’s been quietly unfolding in central Pennsylvania, thanks to a long-standing partnership between Infinera and Penn State’s Materials Research Institute (MRI).

The winners of the 17th annual Materials Visualization Competition (MVC), a scientific visual and artistic competition sponsored by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Materials Research Institute at Penn State, have been announced. MVC celebrates the quality of research in materials at Penn State and promotes awareness of materials science through visualization.

The 2025 Richard E. Tressler Lecture in Materials will be held at 3:05 p.m. on Thursday, April 24, in 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building on the Penn State University Park campus. Faisal Mohammed Al-Faqeer, senior vice president of liquids to chemicals at Saudi Aramco, will deliver the lecture, “Oil and Gas Sector: Cutting-Edge Advanced Materials for Sustainable Energy.”

Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) recognized exceptional students and faculty for their academic excellence, service and leadership during its annual Wilson Awards Celebration, held on March 30. The Wilson Awards are named in honor of Matthew and Anne Wilson, major benefactors of the college. 

“We are extremely proud of the accomplishments of our faculty and students,” said Lee Kump, the John Leone Dean in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. “We have a tremendously talented faculty and students who do remarkable things, and this is a chance to honor them.”

Duanchen Zhang has been selected to represent Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences as the student marshal for the college’s fall 2024 commencement on Sunday, Dec. 22, in the Bryce Jordan Center on the University Park campus.

A new type of eco-friendly glass developed by researchers at Penn State offers higher crack resistance, potentially allowing for thinner, lighter and more sustainable products.

The 2024 Nelson W. Taylor Lecture in Materials will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Heritage Hall at Penn State University Park. The theme of this year’s lecture series is "Materials for Energy Innovation."

In the vast and varied research that comes out of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) at Penn State, there’s one thing that’s even more important than discovery: lab safety.

Registration is open for Penn State’s marquee annual materials event, Materials Day, an opportunity for the University research community to celebrate past achievements, make connections and peer into the future of materials. The event‘s theme is “Convergence of Materials, Data, Manufacturing, and the Human Dimension” and it will be held Oct. 29 through Oct. 30 at the HUB-Robeson Center and the Millennium Science Complex at Penn State University Park.