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Madeline Shanafelt applied the research skills she developed at Penn State during a summer internship with MDRC, a social science nonprofit in New York City.
A Penn State professor who studies religion, government and civil society in American communities explained in the following Q&A the history, social impact and constitutional context of religion in American society and the 2026 midterm elections.
Dawson Glogau gained hands-on experience in policy research and advocacy during a summer internship in Washington, D.C., through the Liberal Arts Semester in Washington Program.
New research used museum specimens collected in the 1970s and 80s to show that the decline in amphibian populations at Boracéia Biological Station in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest were due to the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus, which wasn’t identified until 1999.
Penn State Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography Jennifer Van Hook has been elected president of the Population Association of America.
New research, led by Penn State scientists, has identified a new role for a complex of proteins — CCR4-NOT — as a suppressor of jumping gene activity.
The AI and the Economy Initiative will host its fall workshop Oct. 27-28 at the Eric J. Barron Innovation Hub in State College. The program will feature external speakers from industry, policy and academia, alongside leaders of Penn State’s AI transformation.
Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) has welcomed five new co-funded faculty members, further strengthening its mission of advancing interdisciplinary social and behavioral science across the University.
Penn State Sustainability is hosting the second edition of this year’s sustainability career programming series with “Sustainability Careers in Labor,” a webinar focused on highlighting opportunities for engagement in the labor movement. Attendees may join via Zoom from 6 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 27. The event is free and open to all; registration is required.
Eighteen years later, students who had participated in an enriched Head Start program reported lower levels of conduct problems, depressive symptoms and loneliness and higher levels of empathy, emotional support, healthy days and life satisfaction than their peers who participated in standard Head Start.
The Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State has awarded funding to support 12 new projects.
The Rock Ethics Institute is accepting applications for its 2027–28 Faculty Fellows Program. The deadline to apply is Nov. 8. The institute anticipates awarding two fellowships, each providing a one-course release from teaching during the academic year to support ethics-related research.
Five Penn State scholars affiliated with the Rock Ethics Institute will participate in an international workshop Oct. 20-22 in Freiburg, Germany, launching a new collaboration with the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies. The workshop will explore ethical questions surrounding artificial intelligence, technology and sustainability, building on Penn State’s longstanding strategic partnership with the University of Freiburg.
Award-winning poet Victoria Chang will deliver the 2026 Emily Dickinson Lecture in American Poetry at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 22, in Paterno Library’s Foster Auditorium.
Three faculty panelists will discuss open access and the cost of closed knowledge during a University Libraries Oct. 22 online event. A new calculator tool is also now available to help researchers estimate the costs of preparing refereed journal articles, launched by nonprofit SPARC, which supports open systems for research and education.
The Palmer Museum of Art in the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State presents two collaborative exhibitions: “America Works: Building and Sustaining the Nation,” curated with faculty from the School of Labor and Employment Relations, and “Out of the Shadows: Drawings and Watercolors by American Women,” curated by two summer student interns at the Palmer.
