CurtisLab: represent! Energy Days & Material Research Day Conferences!
Post date: Dec 01, 2016 1:42:16 AM
Penn State hosts a series of conferences with free (or minimal) enrollment for undergraduate research participants including two in which CurtisLab has participated in recent months: Penn State Energy Days 2016 and Research Penn State 2016--Materials Day Reinvented.
Penn State's new initiative to become "The Energy University" leverages its
long history at the epicenter of energy (e.g. coal mining, Marcellus shale, Petroleum Research Laboratory) to pave the way forward with advances in alternative fuels and sustainability for greater energy security. To that end, Penn State Institute for the Energy & Environment (PSIEE) hosted its first first annual Penn State Energy Days conference on May 19th & 20th, 2016, where Krishnan Sreenivas presented his poster, "Phyco-Remediation of Heavy Metal Contaminant from Industrial Effluents using Genetically-Enhanced Microalgae" (see below). The conference provided tours of numerous Penn State facilities, hosted a broad expanse of research disciplines (e.g. social sciences, agriculture, engineering), and attracted a high ratio of industrial partners to promote industry-university collaborations to tackle current global energy security problems. Penn State Energy Days 2017 will be hosted on May 22nd & 23rd at Innovation Park.
Materials Day reinvented itself to a broader scope as Research Penn State 2016 this October 5th & 6th. Attracting industrial partners from all over the world, this Research Day conference also introduced guests to the following research institutes, which boast facilities available for external use:
Materials Research Institute
Huck Institute of Life Science (i.e. Shared Fermentation Facility which Dr. Curtis started/operated as a new faculty member)
Institute for CyberScience
Institute of Energy & the Environment
Social Science Research Insitute
At the conference's poster session, Erica Lennox represented Dr. Curtis in his absence, highlighting his 28 years of research in bioreactor design in her poster entitled "₵heap = $mart (Not Disposable)", culminating in CurtisLab's latest bioreactor: a low-cost Hydrostatically-Driven Temporary Immersion Bioreactor (Hy-TIB) for enhanced plant propagation of African orphan crops toward food and economic security in Africa.
