2024: The year in review
We’ve had some big moments in the college this year, including creating the National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences at Penn State; naming the Benkovic Building; and seeing several of our colleagues, including Andrew Read, Tracy Langkilde and Nikki Crowley, take on University-wide leadership roles.
We’ve outlined just a few 2024 highlights below and will be sharing these and others on our college social media platforms — and we want to hear from you, too! We hope you check them out on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) and also comment on the posts to share your own department’s, lab’s, unit’s, and office’s 2024 highlights!
Anniversaries
The college’s longstanding history of exceptional outreach logged several major milestones in 2024:
- The Ashtekar Frontiers of Science Lectures celebrated 30 years of sharing innovative research from the college and University with the local community.
- AstroFest celebrated 25 years of impact reaching more than 45,000 local community members.
- Science-U celebrated 25 years of science outreach to more than 10,000 local K-12 students.
Endowments
The college’s alumni and donors were especially generous this past year, with several multimillion-dollar commitments to our faculty and educational initiatives:
- A gift from mathematics alumna Susan Grove and her late husband, Cada, endowed and named the Cada R. and Susan Wynn Grove Center for Excellence in Science Education.
- Penn State’s 2020 Philanthropist of the Year, Keiko Miwa Ross, endowed the Lee M. Hammarstrom-Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Endowed Faculty Position in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
Awards
Our staff, students, alumni, and faculty received a number of prestigious awards in 2024:
- Mathematics Financial Coordinator Amy Stover was honored with the University’s Support Staff Award.
- Biology undergraduate Jacob Levendosky was honored with the John W. Oswald Award.
- Biotechnology undergraduate Nate Carey was awarded prestigious Goldwater, Astronaut, and Marshall scholarships and was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist.
- Graduate students Benton Bickerton (chemistry), Yin Tang (statistics), and Morgan Vincent (chemistry) were honored with the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award.
- Physics graduate students Marius Jürgensen and Divya Singh were selected to receive the Alumni Association Dissertation Award, and biotechnology graduate student Grace Buddle was selected to receive the Professional Master’s Excellence Award.
- Astronomy and astrophysics alumna Jane Rigby was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Chemistry alumnus Rick Gottscho was honored with the Alumni Fellow Award.
- Biology alumna Ala Stanford was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award.
- Statistics alumnus Jemar Bather was honored with the Alumni Achievement Award.
- Physics alumna Sylvia Biscoveanu made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
- Physics professors Cui-Zu Chang and Doug Cowen were elected as fellows of the American Physical Society.
- Chemistry professor Joseph Cotruvo Jr. was named as a 2024 national finalist for the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in the chemical sciences.
- Biochemistry and molecular biology professor emeritus Ross Hardison was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
- Physics professor Jainendra Jain was elected as a foreign fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.
- Biochemistry and molecular biology professor Katsuhiko Murakami and physics professor Mikael Rechtsmanreceived Faculty Scholar Medals.
- Mathematics teaching professor Eric Simring was honored with the Department of Corrections Volunteer of the Year Award.
- Statistics professor Runze Li was selected to receive the Harry C. Carver Medal from the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.
- The One Health Microbiome Center, led by biology professor Seth Bordenstein, was selected as the winner of the WH Pierce Global Impact in Microbiology Prize.
Research
There’s been lots of great research published supporting University strategic priorities — particularly in growing interdisciplinary research excellence, transforming health through academic and clinical synergy, increasing our land-grant impact, and enhancing student success:
- Joey Cotruvo’s work on rare earth minerals chemistry
- Jun Zhu’s, and Cui-Zu Chang and Chao-Xing Liu’s research on quantum electronics and computing
- Melanie McReynolds’ and Scott Selleck’s studies of neuroscience/Alzheimer’s disease
- Miriam Freedman’s research on microplastics and climate change
- Joel Leja’s studying of early-universe cosmology
- Scott Lindner’s work on innovative vaccine delivery
- Lu Bai’s research on genomics and gene regulation
- Charlie Anderson’s and Sarah Pfaff’s studies of cellulose related to biofuels
University-wide impact
Our college community members are making an impact on research and teaching across the University:
- The Learning Assistant Program supported more than 8,000 Penn State undergraduates in the past year.
- A $20 million grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation supported the establishment of the National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences (NCEMS) at Penn State, led by chemistry professor Ed O’Brien.
- Astronomy and astrophysics graduate student researcher Megan Delamer and then-undergraduate student Abigail Minnich (also astronomy and astrophysics) shared the importance of student research with the Penn State Board of Trustees.