UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Institutes of Energy and the Environment (IEE) awarded seed grants to 21 groups of interdisciplinary researchers at Penn State for the 2021–22 cycle.

Since 2013, IEE has awarded grants to nearly 200 interdisciplinary projects across 15 Penn State colleges and campuses.

“The return on investment of this program has been outstanding, demonstrating proof-of-concept for novel approaches to discovery and innovation, and resulting in high-profile publications and large external grants,” said Tom Richard, IEE director and professor of agricultural and biological engineering.

IEE’s Seed Grant Program fosters basic and applied research addressing five research themes: Climate and Ecosystem Change; Health and the Environment; Integrated Energy Systems; Urban Systems; and Water and Biogeochemical Cycles.

“This kind of seed grant funding allows researchers to build an interdisciplinary team, work together on critical questions and further their impact,” said Lara Fowler, IEE assistant director and senior lecturer for Penn State Law.

The 2022 projects — along with their principal investigators, co-investigators and affiliated colleges/organizations — that were awarded seed grants are:

Climate and Ecosystem Change

• “Survey of the taxonomic and functional diversity of the soil microbial communities in the Páramo of Chingaza (Laguna Seca, Colombia)” — Estelle Couradeau, College of Agricultural Sciences; John Regan, College of Engineering
• “Facilitating environmental investigations employing a single column model” — José D. Fuentes, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Laifang Li, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Abu Asaduzzaman, Penn State Harrisburg; Melissa Gervais, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Jia Li, Eberly College of Science; Li Li, College of Engineering; Wei Peng, School of International Affairs; Manzhu Yu, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Chris Forest, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Alfonso Mejia, College of Engineering; Xingchao Chen, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
• “Urban green infrastructure and the day-night ‘humid-heat islands’ of the Northeast U.S.” — Meetpal Kukal, College of Agricultural Sciences; Suat Irmak, College of Agricultural Sciences; Kenneth Davis, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Lauren McPhillips, College of Engineering; Shirley Clark, Penn State Harrisburg; Hong Wu, College of Arts and Architecture
• “Promoting solutions to climate change and health challenges through science-policy communications” — Elizabeth Long, College of Health and Human Development; Daniel Max Crowley, College of Health and Human Development; Taylor Scott, College of Health and Human Development; Rebecca Bascom, College of Medicine; Omrana Pasha, College of Medicine
• “Developing a system to continuously measure N2O emission from soils” — Felipe Montes, College of Agricultural Sciences; Armen Kemanian, College of Agricultural Sciences; Estelle Couradeau, College of Agricultural Sciences; Lauren McPhillips, College of Engineering

Health and the Environment

• “A data science approach for scaling synergistic, ‘one-touch’ building retrofit solutions” — Saurabh Basu, College of Engineering; Heather Ligler, College of Arts and Architecture; Esther Obonyo, College of Engineering; Kristin Sznajder, College of Medicine; Soundar Kumara, College of Engineering
• “Prescribed fire effects on wildlife and subsequent tick parasitism” — Erika Machtinger, College of Agricultural Sciences; Jesse Kreye, College of Agricultural Sciences
• “Environmental impact on neural circuitry development of psychiatric disorders” — Yingwei Mao, Eberly College of Science; Nanyin Zhang, College of Engineering; Alfredo Bellon, College of Medicine
• “Transport and fate of microplastics in a tidal marsh ecosystem, Delaware River” — Raymond Najjar, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Lisa Emili, Penn State Altoona; Jill Arriola, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Nathaniel Warner, College of Engineering; Patrick Drohan, College of Agricultural Sciences; Robert Mathers, Penn State New Kensington

Integrated Energy Systems

• “Reducing uncertainty in river system forecasts to maximize nuclear and hydro generation” — Steven Greybush, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Alfonso Mejia, College of Engineering
• “Quantifying biomass intra-particle transport to enhance biofuel synthesis and combustion” — Jacqueline O’Connor, College of Engineering; Jonathan Mathews, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Jillian Goldfarb, Cornell University
• “Deciphering the nano-structural mechanisms to enhance the performance of water splitting catalyst by advanced correlative characterizations” — Yang Yang, College of Engineering; Lauren Greenlee, College of Engineering; Ismaila Dabo, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Lauren Zarzar, Eberly College of Science; Mauricio Terrones, Eberly College of Science

Urban Systems

• “URB-EC: Urban Embodied Carbon” — Rahman Azari, College of Arts and Architecture; Mehrdad Mahdavi, College of Engineering; Lisa Iulo, College of Arts and Architecture; Mostafa Sabbaghi, Smeal College of Business
• “Developing tools to study urban lighting systems that support healthier circadian cycles” —  Anne-Marie Chang, College of Health and Human Development; Dorukalp Durmus, College of Engineering; Jeffrey Mundinger, College of Engineering
• “Connecting policies to actions for creating just, biodiverse, and climate-resilient urban forests” — Travis Flohr, College of Arts and Architecture; Lilliard Richardson, College of the Liberals Arts; Margaret Hoffman, College of Agricultural Sciences; Hong Wu, College of Arts and Architecture; Justine Lindemann, College of Agricultural Sciences; Mehdi Heris, Hunter College
• “Using machine learning to design novel low-CO2 cements with optimal performance” — Farshad Rajabipour, College of Engineering; Ismaila Dabo, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Gopakumar Kaladharan, College of Engineering

Water and Biogeochemical Cycles

• “On-demand 3D printing of food-grade biopolymer-encapsulated ferrate (VI) for individualized and equitable access to drinking water” — Amrita Basak, College of Engineering; Zoubeida Ounaies, College of Engineering
• “A one-stop online platform for water-energy-food nexus research: Integrating systems modeling and deep learning-based literature mining” — Rachel Brennan, College of Engineering; C. Lee Giles, College of Information Sciences and Technology; Femeena Pandara Valappil, College of Engineering
• “Water cycle between Atlantic Ocean and Sahel: A key precursor of monsoon MCS rainfall” — Xingchao Chen, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Laifang Li, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Gregory Jenkins, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
• “Evaluation of sustainable groundwater production through the poromechanics of aquifer rocks and satellite-assisted mapping of ground displacement” — Amin Mehrabian, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Christelle Wauthier, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
• “Reservoir phosphorus legacies: Reconstructing long-term phosphorus dynamics using multi-proxy paleolimnological analyses and water quality monitoring” — Kimberly Van Meter, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; Jon Sweetman, College of Agricultural Sciences; Nathaniel Warner, College of Engineering

The Institutes of Energy and the Environment is one of seven interdisciplinary research institutes at Penn State that connects and supports interdisciplinary teams of researchers to solve some of the world’s most difficult energy and environmental challenges.

For more information about the seed grant program or the Institutes of Energy and the Environment, visit iee.psu.edu or email iee@psu.edu.