Millennium Café

Young people are reshaping how we think about climate solutions by bringing imagination, culture, and creativity into the conversation. Our research explores how students connect everyday choices, community engagement, and global concerns into new ways of thinking about sustainability. These perspectives highlight overlooked dimensions of culture and emotion in climate solutions, pointing toward more resilient and inclusive pathways for the future.

Harman Singh  |  Geography & Climate Science

Mark Ortiz  |  Geography & IEE & SSRI

At the Materials Research Institute (MRI), we serve as Penn State’s hub for interdisciplinary materials research, uniting faculty, students, and staff across colleges to tackle pressing scientific and societal challenges. MRI integrates world-class facilities, expert staff, and vibrant research centers to advance materials synthesis, characterization, computation, and manufacturing, enabling discoveries that transform energy, health, sustainability, and advanced manufacturing. This talk will highlight how MRI fosters collaboration through open-access laboratories, convergent research initiatives, and seed grant programs, and how it connects Penn State researchers with global partners and industry leaders to accelerate innovation and broaden impact. At MRI, we are building an inclusive, future-focused community where research excellence, education, and innovation intersect, accelerating discovery, training the next generation, and amplifying Penn State’s impact worldwide.

Zoubeida Ounaies | Distinguished Professor and MRI Associate Director

Quantum materials lie at the heart of the next wave of transformative technologies, enabling advances in computing, sensing, and secure communication. At Penn State’s Materials Research Institute, researchers are pushing the frontiers of this field by combining expertise in synthesis, fabrication, characterization, and theory to uncover the fundamental mechanisms that govern quantum behavior at the nanoscale. In this talk, I will introduce the promise of quantum materials broadly, then highlight Penn State efforts such as developing high-purity materials for stable qubits and engineering functional oxides to precisely tune quantum states. These examples illustrate how interdisciplinary teams spanning physics, engineering, and materials science are driving new approaches to quantum information and sensing. I will close by introducing the new Quantum Hub at Penn State, which will bring together expertise across the university to catalyze collaboration, foster innovation, and position Penn State as a leader in quantum materials research and technology development.

Stephanie Law | Associate Director of the Quantum Hub Wilson Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering

The Institute of Energy and the Environment

Energy and environment are intertwined. At Penn State, we do not have separate institutes for energy and environment: we have a single institute encompassing both topics because they should often not be viewed separately. The types of energy sources and fuels we use, and the products for our lifestyles enabled by our energy infrastructure, combine to present the greatest challenges for our natural and built environment. Like the other institutes at Penn State, IEE works to foster collaborations and fuel interdisciplinary research in the areas central to our institute's mission. Our research topics span a huge scale, from molecules polluting our environment that could last forever to the need to have energy sources spanning the scales of milliwatts to terawatts. The IEE has identified five themes to open up silos and create new playing fields where we can work together to address challenges of climate change, water sustainability, providing safe, equitable, and healthy communities, and ensuring resilience in our built environment. In this talk, I will briefly describe what IEE is doing to enable groups to come together through developing our theme-based communities and providing funding to launch new research directions across departments, colleges, and other research institutes at Penn State. 

Bruce Logan  |  Director, IEE

The Institute of Energy and the Environment

At the Center for Molecular Toxicology and Carcinogenesis (CMTC), we are uncovering how PFAS—persistent “forever chemicals”—impact human health. I will share findings that PFAS exposure disrupts the gut microbiome, reshaping microbial communities in ways that influence metabolism and increase disease susceptibility. I will highlight how certain bacterial species can sequester PFAS, with beneficial and harmful microbes responding differently, and how these interactions may contribute to the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Together, these discoveries reveal new dimensions of PFAS toxicity and its broader implications for human health.

Andrew Patterson  |  Director (incoming), CMTC

The Huck Institutes help scientists across Penn State answer fundamental scientific questions and address global challenges through collaboration and innovation.  We will share information about the resources the Huck provides to help you form interdisciplinary teams, access innovative training programs, and leverage state-of-the-art instrumentation and facilities.  We will highlight the diversity of research programs at the Huck, spanning microbiomes, metabolomics, physiology, behavior, and biodiversity monitoring.

Christina Grozinger   |  Director, Huck

David Puts  |  Associate Director of Graduate Education, Huck

Andrew Patterson  |  Associate Director of Shared and Core Facilities, Huck