<p>Curiosity and a love of writing drew Lana Medina to a career in journalism. A concern for its future drew her out of it. The fourth-year doctoral student in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communication loved the work, but the profession’s rapid shift to digital platforms, its ongoing financial hurdles and its increased corporate influence were changing the way news was constructed and shared.</p>

From the newsroom, doctoral student studies journalism’s modern-day challenges

<p>In an analysis of more than 35 million public posts containing links that were shared billions of times on the social media platform between 2017 and 2020, the researchers at Penn State found that around 75% of the shares were made without the posters clicking the link first. Of these, political content from both ends of the spectrum was shared without clicking more often than politically neutral content.</p>

Social media users probably won’t read beyond this headline, researchers say

<p>Phosphorus, a nutrient in soil essential for sustaining most forms of life, is increasingly disappearing from land as it is washed into waterways throughout the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.</p>

American soil losing more crop nutrients due to heavier rainstorms, study shows

<p>The J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School at Penn State and Penn State Global have announced the awardees for the Fall 2024 Graduate Student International Travel Grants. Of 39 applications, seven were selected for $1,500 grants to assist them in presenting their research at international conferences outside the United States. </p>

Fox Graduate School names recipients of fall 2024 International Travel Grants

<p>The Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences (ICDS) recently hosted their annual symposium, "ICDS Day MMXXIV: Shaping the Future of Penn State’s Digital Research," which highlighted interdisciplinary research in computational and data sciences across the University.</p>

ICDS Day 2024 highlights significance of interdisciplinary research

<p>Stephanie Danette Preston, associate dean for graduate educational equity and chief diversity officer for graduate education with the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School, was recently selected as the 2024 Faculty Mentor of Year for the Sloan Scholars Program.</p>

Fox Graduate School associate dean honored as Sloan Faculty Mentor of the Year

Penn State selected for Council of Graduate Schools STEM Workforce Project

<p>A new approach for modeling important atmospheric chemical reactions, developed by a team led by scientists at Penn State, may improve our understanding of the atmosphere on early Earth and help in the search for habitable conditions on planets beyond our solar system.</p>

New approach improves models of atmosphere on early Earth, exo-planets

<p>A team of researchers from Penn State and the University of California, Irvine, received a one-year grant from the National Institute on Aging to examine how formerly incarcerated individuals form networks upon their release from prison and how such relationships help with navigating reentry into the community.</p>

How do formerly incarcerated individuals navigate community reentry?

<p>China recently limited the export of gallium nitride, a type of semiconductor used to manufacture a variety of consumer power electronics, such as cellphones and computers, as well as medical devices, cars, wind turbines, solar farms, LED lightbulbs and more. The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Patrick Lenahan, distinguished professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State, $1 million to investigate the possibility of replacing gallium nitride-based devices with boron nitride.</p>

The search to replace a critical semiconductor

<p>Denis Crawford earned his doctorate in American studies from Penn State Harrisburg in 2020. In 2022, he became the historian and exhibit designer for the College Football Hall of Fame.</p>

Harrisburg alum makes career telling stories at College Football Hall of Fame

<p>Nate Osikowicz, a Penn State doctoral student in aerospace engineering, has received a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities award. The award sponsors graduate students who have the potential to contribute to the development of innovative new space technologies.</p>

Aerospace graduate student receives NASA research opportunity

<p>A simple biomaterial-based strategy that can influence the behavior of cells could pave the way for more effective medical treatments such as wound healing, cancer therapy and even organ regeneration, according to a research team at Penn State.</p>

Squishy microgels in granular biomaterials confine and direct cell behavior

<p>Engaging in everyday physical activity has immediate benefits for brain health. Middle-aged people who participated in everyday movement showed improvement in cognitive processing speed equivalent to being four years younger, regardless of the activity's intensity level, according to a new study by researchers in the Penn State College of Medicine.</p>

Can everyday physical activity improve cognitive health in middle age?

<p>The Biology and Ecology Student Research Showcase, hosted by the Biology Graduate Student Association and Ecology Graduate Student Organization on Nov. 1, featured poster and podium presentations from nearly 30 graduate and undergraduate students.</p>

Biology and Ecology Student Research Showcase winners announced

Upcoming events supporting graduate student success, Nov. 13-19

<p>Penn State Great Valley is offering a streamlined 33-credit MBA with highly flexible delivery and the opportunity to specialize by earning up to three graduate certificates as part of the program.</p>

Penn State Great Valley launches streamlined 33-credit MBA

<p>Two graduate students in Penn State Great Valley’s data analytics program, Praneeth Sunkavalli and Jainil Kakka, won second place for their research poster at a recent symposium hosted by the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. For their research project, they used machine learning to analyze event data from soccer games to measure the success rates of a defensive tactic called "pressing," when players pressure their opponents in an attempt to regain the ball.</p>

Great Valley students’ sports analytics research poster wins second place

<p>A consistent bedtime may be more important to a child’s ability to control their emotions and behavior than the duration or quality of their sleep, according to a new publication by researchers in the Penn State College of Health and Human Development and Penn State College of Medicine. </p>

Consistent bedtime linked with better child emotion and behavior regulation

<p>Eleven students from the College of IST attended the BLK Men in Tech THRIVE Conference on Oct. 10-13 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. THRIVE is a tech conference designed to foster connections, facilitate learning and promote personal development for all in the tech community, with a special focus on the Black male experience.</p>

IST students attend tech conference focused on the Black male experience

<p>Five Penn State aerospace engineering graduate students, including two brothers, were selected for the Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation Scholarship-for-Service Program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Defense.</p>

Aerospace engineering graduate students awarded Department of Defense fellowship

<p>The delegation of Penn State faculty and students who went to Azerbaijan for the United Nations’ annual climate meeting known as the Conference of Parties, COP29, will take part in a panel discussion from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at Penn State University Park. The event, called Climate Conversation Café, is supported by the Penn State Climate Consortium.</p>

Penn State delegation will head to Azerbaijan for UN's annual climate meeting

Upcoming events supporting graduate student success, Nov. 6-12

<p>The Madlyn L. Hanes Library at Penn State Harrisburg has launched a new exhibition, “Always Aim High! An Exhibition Celebrating Shirley Chisholm,” featuring rare materials from the Alice Marshall Women’s History Collection. The exhibition opened Oct. 22 and will be on display through Dec. 20 at the entrance to Archives and Special Collections on the library's third floor. Chisholm was the first Black woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968 and the first Black woman to run for U.S. president in 1972. </p>

Harrisburg campus library celebrates Shirley Chisholm with new exhibition

<p>Maddie Hindman, a master of public policy student, is using her Liberal Arts education and passion for civic engagement to get out the vote.</p>

Liberal Arts student mobilizes young voters through PSU Votes internship

<p>Faculty and staff in Penn State’s Law, Policy, and Engineering (LPE) initiative were recently tapped by the governor’s office to lead a two-day training program in September in Harrisburg on science and technology policy. The faculty and staff are part of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Science and Technology Policy Program, which is run by LPE and aims to improve public and environmental health, economic and social equity, and public scientific discourse in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.</p>

New initiative in Law, Policy and Engineering trains state governor’s fellows

<p>Ashleigh McDonald, a doctoral student and graduate assistant in the College of the Liberal Arts’ Department of Communication Arts and Sciences, traveled to Sydney, Australia, to conduct research for her dissertation at two prominent and allegedly haunted sites that date back to the late 1700s, when Great Britain and Ireland first started using the country as a penal colony.</p>

Liberal Arts doctoral student explores memories behind haunted places

<p>Keisha Oliver, who is pursuing a dual-title doctoral degree in art education and African American and diaspora studies, was named a fall 2024 artist-in-residence at the Penn State College of Engineering’s Learning Factory.</p>

Art education doctoral student serves as artist-in-residence at Learning Factory

<p>Hospitality stakeholders and organizations can serve a significant role in the integration of people who have criminal records or histories of incarceration back into the workforce, according to a new framework created by researchers in the Penn State School of Hospitality Management.</p>

Hiring, supporting justice-impacted individuals in the workplace

<p>Microplastics have been steadily increasing in freshwater environments for decades and are directly tied to rising global plastic production since the 1950s, according to a new study by an interdisciplinary team of Penn State researchers.</p>

Microplastics increasing in freshwater, directly related to plastic production

<p>A newly discovered protein naturally houses an unusual binding site that can differentiate between rare earth elements, and researchers at Penn State have made it even better. Rare earth elements are key components used in everything from modern tech to gasoline production. The protein, called LanD, enriches neodymium and praseodymium over other similar rare earth elements and has the potential to revolutionize industrial mining, researchers said.</p>

Bacterial protein discovered, engineered to better separate rare earth metals

Upcoming events supporting graduate student success, Oct. 30-Nov. 5

<p>Three graduates were honored at the College of Information Sciences and Technology's second annual Alumni Symposium. The award ceremony was part of two event-filled days celebrating IST’s 25th anniversary.</p>

Three graduates honored at College of IST Alumni Symposium

<p>Maddie Hindman, a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in public policy, has been working as an intern for PSU Votes since May to help prepare her fellow students to vote in this year's general election. In this Q&amp;A, Hindman talks about her experience with student voter support at Penn State and what she thinks her peers need to know heading into Election Day on Nov. 5. </p>

Penn State student works to ready peers to vote in upcoming election

<p>Medical imaging is no longer in Kansas, Toto, as a team led by Penn State researchers brings traditional black and white diagnostic images of X-rays and traditional CT scans into technicolor. The researchers developed novel contrast agents that target two proteins implicated in osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease commonly characterized as wear-and-tear arthritis.</p>

New technique allows technicolor imaging of degenerative joint disease

<p>Three Penn State Online MBA students attended the 2024 homecoming game — including one in an unconventional way.</p>

Penn State Online MBA students make sure their friend doesn’t miss Homecoming

<p>Anivesh Sinha is one of the graduate research assistants working with a team of faculty and students from five Commonwealth Campuses, with funding from a University Presidential Public Impact Research Award, to help Pennsylvania nonprofit organizations improve their cybersecurity practices.</p>

Grad student works with research team to strengthen nonprofits’ cybersecurity

<p>Since 2017, ClearWater Conservancy and the Sustainable Communities Collaborative have collaborated on projects that address the nonprofit organization’s needs while providing Penn State students with real-world experiences. This semester, graduate-level graphic design students have been redeveloping the organization’s visual identity and providing recommendations for additional aspects of design in print and digital media.</p>

Graphic design students help ClearWater Conservancy develop new visual identity

<p>Voice assistants (VAs) like Alexa and Siri continue to gain popularity in households and on personal devices. According to digital trends research company Emarketer, the number of VA users will surpass 150 million in 2025. Despite the ubiquity, companies haven’t been able to work around users’ strong negative reactions to advertising on these applications. A research team, including scholars from Penn State, may have a solution.</p>

More user control may help ease negative reactions to ads on voice assistants

<p>An old physical phenomenon, known as the Hall effect, has revealed some new tricks, according to a team co-led by researchers at Penn State and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They reported their findings, which they said have potential implications for understanding fundamental physics of quantum materials and developing applied technologies such as quantum communication and harvesting energy via radio frequencies, in Nature Materials.</p>

Room temperature electrical control could heat up future technology development

<p>Twenty-four students from the College of Information Sciences and Technology attended the annual Grace Hopper conference, which celebrates women and nonbinary technologists from around the world. </p>

IST students attend annual Grace Hopper Celebration

<p>A team led by researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine re-engineered immune cells with a light-activated switch that modulates protein function and cellular behavior. When exposed to blue light, the cells change shape, infiltrating solid tumors grown in the lab and killing them.</p>

Re-engineered, blue light-activated immune cells penetrate and kill solid tumors

<p>Though often compared in size to round objects — peas, golf balls or even softballs — hailstones do not fall from the sky as smooth spheres. A new approach for modeling hailstorms that uses more realistic hailstone shapes could improve our understanding of hazardous weather, according to a team led by scientists at Penn State.</p>

Lumpy, bumpy hail: Realistic hail shapes may improve modeling of severe weather

<p>Penn State University Libraries will observe GIS Day — an annual event celebrating the technology of geographic information systems — on Nov. 18 and 19. This year’s sessions focus on geospatial presentation, networking opportunities and student engagement, with the theme “Geographers Take Action.” The event is co-sponsored with the Department of Geography.</p>

Penn State GIS Day activities focus on the theme “Geographers Take Action”

<p>Penn State University Libraries will observe GIS Day — an annual event celebrating the technology of geographic information systems — on Nov. 18 and 19. This year’s sessions focus on geospatial presentation, networking opportunities and student engagement, with the theme “Geographers Take Action.” The event is co-sponsored with the Department of Geography.</p>

Penn State GIS Day activities focus on the theme 'Geographers Take Action'

<p>Margery E. Hoffman, widow of 1982 Penn State civil engineering doctoral alumnus Paul C. Hoffman, has committed a $1.05 million estate gift to establish an endowment to benefit graduate students in civil engineering in her husband's memory.</p>

$1.05 million estate gift to establish graduate fellowship in civil engineering

Upcoming events supporting graduate student success, Oct. 23-29

<p>A project led by Penn State researcher Felecia Davis that explores Black culture, its relationship to technology, and concepts of translation in architectural design is featured in the “Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design” exhibition that opened Sept. 28 at the Craft Contemporary arts museum in Los Angeles.</p>

Work by Stuckeman architecture researcher featured in Los Angeles exhibition