alumni News

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 Sunday, April 23. The Wilson Awards are named in honor of Matthew and Anne Wilson, major benefactors of the college.

The winners of the 15th annual Materials Visualization Competition (MVC), a scientific visual and artistic competition sponsored by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) and the Materials Research Institute (MRI) 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.

Alumna Titilayo “Titi” Shodiya, deputy quality manager at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will present the 2023 Richard E. Tressler Lecture at 3:05 p.m. Thursday, April 27, in 111 Wartik Laboratory on the Penn State University Park campus. Shodiya’s lecture is titled “Materials and Beyond.”

The 2023 Nelson W. Taylor Lecture in Materials will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, April 20, in the HUB-Robeson Center’s Freeman Auditorium on Penn State’s University Park campus. The theme of this year’s lecture series is "Frontiers in Glass Science and Technology."

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.

Soft, elastic semiconductors and circuits could advance wearable medical devices and other emerging technologies, but the high-performance electronics are difficult and expensive to manufacture. A Penn State-led research team plans to make the process easier and cheaper with a new manufacturing method.

If glass and ceramics had a hall of fame, there’s a good chance that there would be a lifesize (glass, of course) statue of John Mauro at the entrance. The co-inventor of Gorilla Glass has already been named to the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Inventors, and has just been named as the editor in chief of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society. After a prolific 18-year stint at Corning Incorporated, Mauro decided to bring his expertise to Penn State six years ago. He said the university was a clear choice — no pun intended.

Seven Penn State materials researchers have received the 2022 Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award.

As the first Millennium Scholar in the College of Earth and Mineral Science, Ana De La Fuente Duran embraced the opportunities of the program, which aims to help ambitious students onto the track toward advanced degrees in STEM fields. At Penn State, De La Fuente Duran pursued research into optoelectronics, founded a student organization for women in the sciences, and graduated with a degree in materials science in 2020.

Three materials science and engineering doctoral students — representing six in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences — are among the 21 new National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) recipients for the 2022-23 academic year.