Three faculty receive Presidential Early Career Award for scientists, engineers

Science and Health

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three Penn State researchers have been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the White House announced on Jan. 14. The award is the highest honor the United States government bestows on early-career scientists and engineers. The awards are conferred annually following recommendations from federal funding agencies.
The three Penn State awardees are:

Catherine Berdanier, associate professor of mechanical engineering, specializes in engineering education research, with a particular expertise in characterizing and modeling mechanisms of engineering doctoral attrition, persistence and thriving, with implications for educational policy and interventions.
Margarita Lopez-Uribe, Lorenzo L. Langstroth Early Career Professor and associate professor of entomology, manages research and extension programs that aim to better understand the unintended consequences of agricultural practices on the health and evolutionary trajectories of bees.
Lauren Zarzar, professor of chemistry, develops innovative methods to integrate a variety of materials at nano and microscale levels for next generation technologies, such as dynamic materials that sense and adapt to their surroundings.

“Receiving the PECASE is a profound honor, as it represents our nation’s highest recognition for early-career scientists and engineers,” said Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi. “This accolade acknowledges the dedication and research impact of Dr. Berdanier, Dr. López-Uribe and Dr. Zarzar, and underscores the power of public R1 institutions in building the next generation of scientific leaders. We are proud to support their journeys and excited to see how their work will shape our future.”
Established by then-President Bill Clinton in 1996, PECASE recognizes scientists and engineers who show potential for leadership early in their research careers.
“This recognition highlights the exceptional work of our faculty and underscores the importance of investing in innovation and discovery at every stage of a research career,” said Andrew Read, senior vice president for research at Penn State. “These outstanding members of our community shine as researchers and educators. The sky’s the limit for what they can achieve.”
Each award winner receives a citation, a plaque and up to five years of funding from their respective federal agency to advance their own research.
“The PECASE Awards are intended to recognize some of the finest scientists and engineers who, while early in their research careers, show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of scientific knowledge during the twenty-first century,” the U.S. National Science Foundation said in a statement.
This year’s awardees are employed or funded by 14 participating agencies within the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, the intelligence community, NASA, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution.
“The award recognizes innovative and far-reaching developments in science and technology, expands awareness of careers in science and engineering, recognizes the scientific missions of participating agencies, enhances connections between research and impacts on society, and highlights the importance of science and technology for our nation’s future,” the Biden-Harris administration stated in a news release.
In addition to current faculty, three Penn State alumni were also honored: M. Ehsan Hoque, who earned a bachelor of science in computer engineering in 2004; Cara Lubner, who earned a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology in 2011 and also served as a postdoctoral researcher; and Natasha Batalha, who earned a doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics in 2017.

Why multinational takeovers of indie publishers are ‘bad for readers’

Arts & Culture, Books

Independent Melbourne-based publisher Text Publishing — the home of high-profile authors including Helen Garner, Michelle de Kretser and JM Coetzee — has been acquired by Penguin Random House (PRH) Australia.Text publisher Michael Heyward says Text will operate independently under its new owners with no planned job losses.”Everything that people identify with Text Publishing … we will continue to do,” he tells ABC Arts.But the move has caused alarm among some in the industry, who say the consolidation of the Australian publishing industry will further harm a literary scene already embattled by underfunding and falling national reading rates.Heyward says the cost of printing in some formats has increased more than 50 per cent.Text Publishing has had a range of owners since it was founded by Diana Gribble and Eric Beecher in 1990. Current equity holders Maureen and Tony Wheeler, founders of Lonely Planet, acquired the share of UK publisher Canongate Books in 2011.Heyward, who is 65 and joined the company in 1992, says publishing in Australia has become more challenging due to increasing costs and the rise of Amazon.But he says the decision to sell was motivated by a desire to preserve Text Publishing’s legacy and safeguard its future.Listen to ABC RN’s The Book ShowYour favourite fiction authors share the story behind their latest books.The acquisition is the latest in a spate of takeovers of small and independent publishers by larger firms.In 2024, Simon & Schuster — one of the global ‘Big 5’ publishers, alongside Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan — acquired local indie publisher Affirm Press.A month later, Hardie Grant, a mid-tier local independent publisher, bought fellow indie Pantera Press.Heyward is upbeat about the sale of Text to PRH, arguing it will provide more “muscle” to acquire and market books.The role of small publishersSmall and independent publishers are a critical component of Australia’s publishing landscape, says Dr Ben Eltham, a lecturer in media and communications at Monash University.”They play a disproportionate role … in nurturing young talent and bringing through independent authors and new voices into our literary scene.”Dr Millicent Weber, a lecturer in English at the Australian National University, says small presses have dominated literary prize shortlists and book review pages in recent years.The value of indie presses for larger publishers lies in “their reputation and existing relationships within the industry and with readers; their assets, specifically the titles for which they hold copyright; and the staff and operational assets that make up the organisation”, she explains.Literary legend Helen Garner takes on local under-16s footyThe acclaimed author of Monkey Grip and The Children’s Bach is back: this time she turns her razor-sharp writer’s eye to her 16-year-old grandson’s footy team.Text Publishing, for example, comes with a roster featuring winners of the Booker Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Stella Prize.It also has the rights to an extensive catalogue of classic Australian literature — launched in 2012 as Text Classics — which Eltham says hands its new owner valuable “long-tail” content that sells over a long period.He believes the recent indie takeovers will result in fewer opportunities for authors to be published.”Ultimately, I think it will be bad for readers and Australian literature,” he says.”It’s going to mean a lack of diversity, but it’s also going to mean an industry that’s very focused on blockbusters, on a few big-name authors, rather than … bringing through interesting books, difficult books, creative works of fiction that may not be [otherwise] publishable.”Penguin Random House is one of the ‘Big 5’ global book publishers.

 

‘Star Wars’ Film Starring Daisy Ridley Lands ‘Bourne Ultimatum’ Writer George Nolfi

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Daisy Ridley‘s “Star Wars” movie is still alive. Lucasfilm has hired George Nolfi (“The Borne Ultimatum”) to write the script for the long-gestating follow-up to 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” which is still set to be the feature directorial debut for Oscar-winning documentarian Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. By the time Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy officially…

MAKING A DIFFERENCE: CFD firefighter teaching fire safety by writing children’s book

Arts & Culture, Books

Senior Firefighter Allen Green loves to connect with kids and teach them about fire safety, which is a big part of his career with the Chattanooga Fire Department.”I’m really passionate about community, kids, and education,” he said.Green said teaching kids about fire safety is an important element to preventing fires. To do that, Green is using the power of books, but not just any book.”Let me write my own book, that way when I’m reading to them, I know exactly what I want them to learn and what they need to know,” he added.Green wrote, “Mom! Dad! What Should I Do?” a children’s book explaining the importance of fire safety and having a plan. He said the characters in the book are just as important as it’s message.”I wanted to develop a book that had characters that resembled or related to not just a few of the students, but we can capture all of them,” Green said.Proceeds from the book go to Green’s non-profit called Pain. Perseverance. Character. Hope. Inc., or PPCH, Inc., to help those who have walked a path similar to his.Green grew up in Alton Park, both of his parents were sent to jail, and he dropped out of school in sixth grade. Green aims to mentor kids and help them succeed.”I come in and provide self development, social and emotional learning, executive functioning skills development. These are things that I didn’t get into until I was almost in my 30s,” he added.His mission is empowering the community he also protects.”Once I went through everything I went through, state’s custody, foster homes, group homes, I said, “What can I do in my life to be a bridge builder?” to reach back, to reach out into the community,” Green said.You buy a copy of Allen Green’s book on Amazon.

Champagne calls for review of Ottawa’s ‘business relationship’ with Amazon after Quebec shutdown

Business News

Amazon AMZN-Q says its plans to close all seven of its warehouses in Quebec remain unchanged, even as the federal industry minister calls for a review of Ottawa’s “business relationship” with the online retail giant.“They’ll have me fighting to make sure that this is not going to go unanswered in Canada,” Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Friday.The closing will eliminate 1,700 permanent jobs and 250 temporary ones. It comes after workers at an Amazon warehouse in the Montreal suburb of Laval, Que. managed to unionize in May.Amazon is dismissing the suggestion that the closures are linked to a unionization push in the province and has said it’s about delivering efficient and cost-effective services to customers.The company said in a media statement Friday that it’s “happy to discuss this matter further with Minister Champagne and other officials in Quebec and Canada.”Champagne said in an online post Friday that he wanted to speak to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.“Mr. Jassy, let’s talk,” he wrote.But in a follow-up statement issued later in the afternoon, Amazon indicated that Champagne won’t be getting a sit-down with the company’s global CEO.“Members of Amazon’s local team will continue to meet with the minister to discuss our business – as we typically do. Our plans remain unchanged,” a spokesperson said.Champagne hasn’t said how the federal government might respond. Ottawa has ongoing contracts with Amazon and the federal government’s website lists more than 200 contracts signed since 2020. Several of those contracts are worth more than $5 million each – one contract is for $22.7 million.“I’m not going to tell them what I’m going to do in advance. That’s called negotiation 101,” he said. “Let them reconsider, let them figure out what we might do as a review.”Champagne also sent a letter to Jassy saying it’s not too late to reconsider. He posted the letter online Thursday evening.“We’re standing up. I can tell you they were quite surprised,” he said. “I think we had more than one million views yesterday, so they’re not used to that kind of response from Canada, and I’m glad we did it.”Champagne said the company wasn’t transparent about the extent of the layoffs in the conversation with Amazon, adding he got only half the story when he spoke with a representative. A spokesperson for Champagne confirmed he spoke with Amazon Canada’s country manager Eva Lorenz Wednesday.“This is also about treating Canada with respect,” he told reporters Friday. “I’m even less pleased than I was yesterday.”Amazon said in the statement that when it makes “operational decisions like this, we generally share the news first with employees and then officials.”With files from Tara Deschamps

STAT+: Trump’s restrictions spark chaos across health and science agencies

Science and Health

Dozens of scientists traveled to San Francisco this week for an unremarkable conference with federal research officials. On Wednesday, the day before it was set to begin, they received a surprising message: Due to a temporary ban on official travel for Department of Health and Human Services staff, its government backers would no longer attend in person. The daylong, in-person event would instead take place virtually and last roughly 90 minutes. The next day, two minutes after the virtual gathering was scheduled to begin, they received a second email: The conference was canceled. No explanation was given. advertisement

That event, focused on developing AI tools to help diagnose rare diseases, was one of perhaps hundreds of health and science gatherings derailed by the Trump administration, whose freeze on communications, travel, and diversity efforts has sowed chaos across federal agencies. 

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‘The Sand Castle’ Netflix Review: A Poignant Yet Boring Film About Victims Of War

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Movies where it’s revealed that the whole plot was happening in the protagonist’s head all along can be very hit or miss. Yes, yes, I know that Albus Dumbledore told Harry Potter that even though their conversation was happening in the latter’s head, it didn’t make it any less real. Yet, using that as a plot twist always makes the whole exercise a little cheap, and the only way to kind of bypass that feeling is by engrossing the audience in the narrative to such an extent that the last-minute attempt at recontextualizing the events doesn’t even matter. For example, there’s The Wizard of Oz, which is such a magical film that the knowledge that it was all a dream is borderline irrelevant. Stay, Ghost Stories, Donnie Darko, and Identity kind of make more sense when you find out that it was all being imagined by someone. The same can be said about The Lighthouse and Shutter Island. And in the case of Pan’s Labyrinth, every element of that magical world gets a touch of melancholy when you understand what’s going on. The Sand Castle is one of those sad instances where nothing about the plot or the plot twist works; which is sad, because it’s an otherwise important movie.

Matty Brown’s The Sand Castle, which he has co-written with Hend Fakhroo and Yassmina Karajah, tells the story of a family of four that’s stranded on a small island that only has a lighthouse and an observational tower of sorts. Yasmine, the mother; Nabil, the father; Adam, the son; and Jana, the daughter are living on the food and fresh water that’s available on the landmass or the ocean surrounding them. But those resources are scarce, and it’s only a matter of time before they begin starving and suffering from dehydration. They have a radio communication device and the lamp atop the lighthouse to signal anyone that’s passing through the area to get them out of there. However, with each passing second, new questions are brought up. For starters, why is this family on this island in the first place? What are they running from, and where are they going? Who built this lighthouse, complete with some kind of a generator, in the middle of nowhere? If there is no source of fuel, what is that generator running on? Is there actually a monster circling the island, like Jana claims? And, sooner rather than later, it becomes apparent that the whole thing is a figment of somebody’s imagination.

I want to make it very clear that by criticizing The Sand Castle, I am not making light of the very real issues that victims of war continue to face. Privileged people like us kept saying that the COVID-19 pandemic was the ultimate equalizer, but there were a lot of countries that put minorities through hell even during that period. Since the fear of the virus was at its peak, it was impossible for authorities who had the ability to give shelter to do so without coming off as insensitive and harsh because they didn’t know if they should prioritize these refugees over their own countrymen. If you see the same situation from the perspective of said refugees, the whole thing feels all the more harrowing. And the fact that all the powerful organizations in the world can’t establish an atmosphere of peace and tranquility, despite having more money and influence than you and I can imagine, is despicable. Now, when I say that Brown, Fakhroo, and Karajah’s combined efforts to shine a light on this undeniable aspect of the reality we live in are absolutely garbage, it’s a dig against the movie, not the crisis that the writers are trying to address.

I can see what Matty Brown was going for in The Sand Castle. He wanted to elicit feelings of mystery, suspense, intrigue, drama, and maybe some fear of the supernatural to distract the audience from the eventual reveal. But I guess he was either limited by the budget or his imagination, and the only sensation that he managed to evoke was boredom. Or maybe he was under the impression that if he swung too hard for the fences and really went off the deep end with his visuals, then the seriousness of the overarching message would be lost. Whatever the case might’ve been, Brown’s lack of confidence in the storytelling tools that he had in his arsenal was palpable, and was the main reason why the overall viewing experience was so dull and sleep-inducing. There was a point in the film where I thought that it was going to go into full-on Lost territory with the yellow object that Jana found and the tornado inside the lighthouse. For a brief moment, Brown had my attention, and then the rest of the movie happened, and he lost me entirely. The cinematography, editing, production design, set design, and all the other technical aspects of the project were fine; they did a good job with whatever they had at their disposal.

I don’t have any real complaints about the cast of The Sand Castle. Nadine Labaki is good in the role of Yasmine. She is made to look exasperated throughout her screen time, but whenever she gets to break out of that routine and do something remotely intriguing, she hits it out of the park. It’s a physically demanding act, and Labaki undoubtedly makes you feel the level of exhaustion and desperation that her character is experiencing. The same can be said about Ziad Bakri’s work in the role of Nabil. For the most part, he seems indifferent to what’s happening in front of him as he is more focused on what’s probably on the horizon. But through small gestures and interactions, Bakri manages to underscore how much Nabil cares about Yasmine, Jana, and Adam. Speaking of Zain Al Rafeea, who plays Adam, he is okay. He starts off as your typical angsty teen and then tries to act responsibly to ensure his sister’s safety. What can you really do with that kind of writing? The most seasoned actors would have struggled with that script, and Zain is just a kid. So, I’ll cut him and Riman Al Rafeea a lot of slack because they are made to do so much of the heavy lifting, especially during the concluding moments of the film.

Here’s the thing: if you need a movie like The Sand Castle to tell you about the kinds of horrors that are unfolding all over the globe, that too after it has been released on a streaming platform like Netflix, which runs on a very weird algorithm, then you are a lost cause. We live in an era where every piece of information is in the palm of our hands. Even then, if we are choosing to curate our timeline in a way that it doesn’t display the death and devastation that’s occurring in various parts of the world, if we are cherry-picking the media outlets so that we just get the “good news” of the week, or if we are opting to use our privilege to not act on our government’s decision to use the money collected via taxes to fund wars, then no movie can change our outlook and attitude towards life. Especially a movie that relies on the gimmick that the narrative is taking place in a character’s head. With all that said, if The Sand Castle somehow compels even a single person to wake up and smell the coffee, then I guess it’s a win for Matty Brown. And if you have watched the film already, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Science and Health

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