Alumni News

Penn State’s Local Climate Action Program (LCAP) is making a valuable impact beyond Pennsylvania’s borders, thanks in part to recent World Campus Energy and Sustainability Policy graduate, Joe Thompson.

Edward  C. Dowling Jr., president, chief executive officer, and board of directors member at Compass Minerals, will give the 2024 G. Albert Shoemaker Lecture in Mineral Engineering at Penn State. His talk, “Challenges and Opportunities of the Critical Minerals Revolution,” will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 19, in the Hub-Robeson Center’s Freeman Auditorium and online via Zoom. A reception will follow the lecture at 5:30 p.m. in Alumni Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Wes Norton, a computer networking expert for a NASA contractor, is making the jump to civil servant to help to solve climate change with the skills he's acquired through the energy and sustainability policy program offered in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering.

Olivia McMahon, a recent graduate from Penn State with a bachelor of science in energy and sustainability policy, was part of the Penn State delegation at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 28th annual Conference of Parties, or COP28, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 13, 2023. The annual conference brings governments worldwide together to formalize agreements on addressing the climate change crises, from reducing emissions to adapting to current and future impacts.

Shimin Liu, professor of energy and mineral engineering and the Thomas V. and Jean C. Falkie Mining Engineering Faculty Fellow at Penn State, and co-author Guijie Sang, who recently earned his doctorate in energy and mineral engineering from Penn State, received the Rossiter W. Raymond Memorial award from the Society of Petroleum Engineering (SPE) and the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) for the best paper published in AIME's fields. The paper, “Carbonate Caprock–Brine–Carbon Dioxide Interaction: Alteration of Hydromechanical Properties and Implications on Carbon Dioxide Leakage,” focuses on the long-term integrity of carbon caprock, which is used to secure, seal and trap CO2 in subsurface formations as part of geological carbon sequestration for carbon management. 

Jerry Berkebile, president of Augustin Exploration LLC, in Midland, Texas, is the 2023 recipient of the Colleen Swetland Alumni Achievement Award given by the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) Graduates of EMS (GEMS) Board of Directors.

Behzad Vaziri Hassas received the 2023 Rong Yu Wan Ph.D. Dissertation Award in Metallurgical Engineering from the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME). Hassas, who earned his doctorate in energy and mineral engineering from Penn State earlier this year, was recognized for his dissertation, “Process development for selective separation of critical elements from secondary resources."

The College of Earth and Mineral Sciences has announced the appointment of Shelley Corman-Frisby, a 1985 graduate in mineral economics, to the Graduates of Earth and Mineral Sciences (GEMS) board of directors. Corman-Frisby will commence her three-year term on July 1.

Barbara Arnold, professor of practice in mining engineering at Penn State, has been awarded honorary membership in American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME). AIME honorary membership is one of the highest honors that the institute can bestow on an individual.

Honorary membership is awarded in appreciation of outstanding service to the institute or in recognition of distinguished scientific or engineering achievement in the fields embracing the activities of AIME and its member societies.

Arnold was recognized for “her dedication and perseverance in developing a strong and more vibrant Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME) Foundation continuing through exemplary service as SME president.” She will be recognized virtually at the 2021 SME Annual Conference & Expo scheduled March 1–5.

Charles Zebula, president of energy supply for American Electric Power (AEP) will give the 2019 G. Albert Shoemaker Lecture in Mineral Engineering at Penn State. His talk, “Resources that will power our future,” will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, April 15, at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center.