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Registration is now open for the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering’s annual "MINING ROCKS!" summer camp. The camp will be held on Penn State's University Park Campus on July 12–17.

Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences recognized exceptional students and faculty for their academic excellence, service, and leadership at its annual Wilson Awards Celebration on March 29. Nineteen members of the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering were recognized.

Nelson Dzade, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering and chair of the undergraduate energy engineering program at Penn State, recently co-chaired the critical minerals and materials session at the annual National Academies U.S.-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Symposium, held this past February in Dakar, Senegal.

Hilal Ezgi Toraman, assistant professor of energy and mineral engineering and of chemical engineering at Penn State, is one of five faculty recognized as a rising star in chemical engineering by the journal ACS Engineering Au for her work developing fundamental research on the utilization of pyrolysis — a chemical recycling process that heats plastic waste in an oxygen-free environment to turn it into valuable fuels, chemicals and new plastic feedstock.

Penn State ranked in 49 out of 55 subjects in the 2026 World University Rankings by Subject, released March 25 by London-based QS, one of the three major international organizations that annually rank academic institutions.

Qian Zhang, a doctoral student in Penn State’s John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, has been awarded the Nico van Wingen Memorial Graduate Fellowship in petroleum engineering by the Society of Petroleum Engineers Foundation.

Gretchen Watkins, board director at The Mosaic Company and former president of Shell USA and executive vice president of Global Shales, will give the 2026 G. Albert Shoemaker Lecture in Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State. Her talk, “Leadership challenges in an ever-changing energy landscape,” will be held at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 10, in 22 Deike Building at Penn State University Park.

Barbara J. Arnold, chair and professor of practice of mining engineering in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, is among two Penn State professors elected to the National Academy of Engineering as members of the class of 2026.

One policy prescription — pushing conservation — will likely be insufficient as a standalone fix to sustain some reservoirs, according to a study led by Penn State scientists published in the journal Water Resources Research.

Since 2019, Penn State’s Local Climate Action Program (LCAP) has helped communities across Pennsylvania take measurable steps toward addressing climate change through applied research, greenhouse gas accounting, and student-driven planning assistance. The program, shared between Penn State Sustainability and the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, pairs state and local government with trained student teams to produce high-quality climate action deliverables that benefit both communities and students.