Administrator

Digby D. Macdonald, an internationally recognized expert in electrochemistry and corrosion science and professor emeritus of materials science and engineering at Penn State, died June 12 in Berkeley, California. He was 82.

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).

Silicon is king in the semiconductor technology that underpins smartphones, computers, electric vehicles and more, but its crown may be slipping, according to a team led by researchers at Penn State. In a world first, they used two-dimensional (2D) materials, which are only an atom thick and retain their properties at that scale, unlike silicon, to develop a computer capable of simple operations.

In the heart of Penn State’s University

The following is a list of academic promotions for tenured and tenure-line faculty members at Penn State, effective July 1, 2025.

The following MatSE individuals have been promoted to professor: 

• Nasim Alem, professor of materials science and engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
• Hojong Kim, professor of materials science and engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences

Penn State’s Cocoziello Institute of Real Estate Innovation has awarded seed grants to five interdisciplinary research projects. These grants support collaborative projects led by Penn State faculty who aim to generate innovative solutions to complex challenges in real estate and the built environment.

The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Academic Leadership Program (ALP) in 2025-26 will include five new fellows from Penn State. 

The BTAA is the academic consortium of the Big Ten Universities and the United States’ pre-eminent model for effective collaboration among research universities.

The Materials Research Institute, Penn State Global and the National Taipei University of Technology (NTUT) have announced the 2025 Collaborative Seed Grant Program to support joint research projects in materials science and engineering. This initiative is designed to spark new international partnerships between faculty at both institutions, with a focus on high-risk, high-reward research in areas such as functional polymer composites, additive manufacturing, sustainable processes and recycling, materials-enabled thermal management, and quantum packaging.