$3M NSF grant to fund sustainable materials design graduate training program
A team of researchers at Penn State was awarded a $3 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish a graduate training program designed to equip the next generation of engineers and scientists with the tools required to affect transformative change in sustainable materials processing.
The new five-year grant — titled “Data science-driven, sustainability-centered advanced materials processing,” or Sus-Mat — is one of 15 grants recently awarded across the country through the NSF’s Research Traineeship (NRT) program.
The primary goal of Sus-Mat is to develop a traineeship program that will pioneer a new educational paradigm that natively integrates data science into sustainable materials and process design, according to principal investigator Allison Beese, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. She explained that this would enable consideration of the full life cycle of materials while accelerating the design and adoption of new materials and manufacturing methods, supporting U.S. economic resilience. Read more
After 12 years as MRI Director, Clive Randall to step down
After more than a decade as director of the Penn State Materials Research Institute (MRI), Clive Randall, Evan Pugh University Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, will step down to refocus his efforts to teaching and research. He will remain on as director through the summer of 2026 to help guide the transition.
MRI is one of the seven research institutes at Penn State. Randall has served as director of MRI since 2014, following the late Carlo Pantano, who was MRI director from 1998 to 2014. Randall’s decision to step down comes after careful planning to help ensure a smooth transition to a new director, he said. Read more
LionGlass >>>
LionGlass windows, windshields in development with Vitro Architectural Glass
LionGlass, a stronger and more sustainable glass invented at Penn State, may soon be developed for windows and windshields, thanks to a new partnership with North America’s largest architectural glass manufacturer Vitro Architectural Glass. The company signed a multi-year research agreement to scale up the new, patent-pending glass technology for use in flat glass applications across architectural and automotive markets. Read more
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Verallia taps LionGlass for low-carbon glass packaging for consumer products
A bottled beverage might soon come with a lower carbon footprint thanks to a new partnership between one of the world’s leading glass manufacturers and scientists at Penn State.
Verallia, the world’s third largest producer of glass containers for food and beverages, has announced a partnership with Penn State to scale up the use of LionGlass, a new family of glass developed by researchers at the University. The company has entered into a research partnership with Penn State to test the new type of glass for use in consumer packaging. Read more
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Bormioli Luigi renews LionGlass deal with Penn State after successful trial run
Penn State’s LionGlass project has reached a major milestone in its partnership with Italian glassmaker Bormioli Luigi, marking one year of collaboration and the signing of a second-year agreement to continue commercialization efforts in the cosmetics packaging industry.
The partnership, which began in 2024, aims to scale up LionGlass — a new family of glass developed at Penn State — as a sustainable alternative to traditional soda lime glass. LionGlass melts at temperatures up to 400 degrees Celsius (C) lower than conventional glass and eliminates direct carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by removing carbonates from the glass batch. It also offers enhanced mechanical durability, in some cases up to 10 times higher crack resistance than conventional glass. Read more
The Undergraduate Research Fellows Program (URF) program offers MATSE undergraduate students, from first-year to third-year standing, an exciting introduction to materials research across the department. Fellows receive a stipend and present their projects at the spring Undergraduate Materials Poster Competition.
This year’s selected Fellows and their faculty mentors are:
- Kai Schneider mentored by Professor Allison Beese.
- Matthew Hammell and Kaylin Lamaute mentored by Professor Jon-Paul Maria.
- Declan McMullen, Lisandi Hasara De Silva, and Jean Ching mentored by Professor Ivo Asuo.
From the Department Head
Dear MatSE friends and alumni,
As we close out the year and look ahead to 2026, I have been reflecting on the profound impact our department continues to have, not only in our classrooms and research labs, but across the materials industry and society at large. Penn State’s Senior Vice President for Research, Andrew Read, recently noted, “We are addressing some of the biggest challenges of the twenty-first century… it’s critical that we continue to communicate the tangible impacts of our research on the world and our students.” That spirit of meaningful, outward-facing impact is woven throughout the articles in this month’s newsletter. Read more
