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John Mauro, Dorothy Pate Enright Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has been named head of Penn State’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, effective July 1. Mauro will succeed Susan Sinnott, who has served as the head of the department since 2015.

Penn State’s Sustainable Labs Program ushers participating labs through a yearlong certification process, guiding them in implementing sustainable practices across multiple domains, including energy efficiency, waste reduction, water conservation, green chemistry and sustainable purchasing. The program will host a virtual information session from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 18, and from 11 a.m. to noon on Friday, Feb. 21, for those interested in learning more or applying for the next cohort.

Penn State Professor Dipanjan Pan and his team are advancing the imaging capabilities by developing contrast agents to target specific molecules and processes that may reveal more about disease progression than traditional scans.

Fuel cells offer a form of clean energy across many sectors and are of particular interest in vehicles, where they produce no emissions. The production of fuel cells requires the use of a rapid laser welding process; however, welding at too high a speed results in humping, marked by surface irregularities on the weld seam.

Mingyu Yu, doctoral candidate in materials science and engineering at Penn State, recently received the Graduate Student Research Award from the professional society AVS: Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces and Processing for innovative research in two-dimensional materials.

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.

The microelectronics industry is nearing a tipping point. The silicon chips at the heart of everyday electronic devices are running into performance limits, raising the need for new materials and technologies to continue making faster, more efficient devices.

What’s the best way to precisely manipulate a material’s properties to the desired state? It may be straining the material’s atomic arrangement, according to a team led by researchers at Penn State. The team discovered that “atomic spray painting” of potassium niobate, a material used in advanced electronics, could tune the resulting thin films with exquisite control. The finding, published in Advanced Materials, could drive environmentally friendly advancements in consumer electronics, medical devices and quantum computing, the researchers said.

Six Penn State materials researchers have received the 2024 Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award, recognizing a wide range of research with societal impact. The award is presented by the Materials Research Institute (MRI) and recognizes recent interdisciplinary materials research at Penn State that yields innovative and unexpected results.

Penn State student Matias Moreno sees a path to bettering his own future in higher education. He sees the engineering skills he’s learning along the way as a path to a more sustainable future for all of us.