There are many forms of energy around us: light, heat, vibrations, wind, electromagnetic fields, fluid flow, waves, organic waste, etc. At large scale, many of these energy sources already play a significant role in powering our society and are projected to become dominant contributors by 2040. On the smaller scale, exciting scientific and engineering challenges must be overcome to harness these energy sources.
As we begin the New Year we’ll take a moment to celebrate some recent accomplishments and look towards the future: winners of the 2017 Rustum and Della Roy Awards will be announced, new faculty will be highlighted, and I’ll provide an update on some MRI strategic initiatives.
Over the past fiscal year, LEO has continued to evolve with one goal in mind: making research operations more efficient, transparent, and user-friendly. While many of these improvements happen behind the scenes, their impact is felt every day across our user community. This issue highlights key enhancements and tools that are helping streamline workflows, improve access, and support high-quality research.
Key Highlights
July 2026 marks an exciting milestone for Dr. Maria Hilse, who was recently promoted to associate research professor at Penn State. Her work spans fundamental materials research, user facility operations, mentorship, and scientific service.
By Jamie Oberdick
In a Penn State lab, a small cylinder of soil sits wired with sensors, slowly cooling as it mimics conditions thousands of miles away.
At first, it looks unremarkable, like dirt from an average backyard mixed with water. But as the temperature drops, the sample begins to freeze, and its internal structure shifts in ways that are invisible to the eye. Each measurement adds another piece to a complex puzzle, one that connects microscopic structures in a lab to vast landscapes in the Arctic and to global systems that affect people everywhere.
A plastic bottle tossed into a recycling bin could one day help power an electric vehicle, smartphone or renewable energy storage system, according to a team of Penn State researchers.
2DCC CHet system enables synthesis of 2D metals, alloys, and functionalized graphene
Confinement heteroepitaxy (CHet) is an emerging approach for stabilizing atomically thin metals and alloys that normally prefer to form 3D structures by confining their growth at interfaces such as graphene. This enables access to truly two-dimensional metallic phases with unusual electronic and optical properties. This opens new directions in quantum materials and nanoscale device engineering.
Ryan Hawks joins the Nanofab technical staff team as a research engineer.
