Faculty engage in scholarly activities off-campus

Penn State’s mission includes improving the well-being and health of individuals and communities through teaching, research and service. Penn State Lehigh Valley (PSU-LV) faculty regularly present, serve on panels and share their research with people and institutions outside of Penn State.

Over the last few months, PSU-LV faculty’s off-campus engagement included:

• Douglas Hochstetler, interim director of academic affairs and professor of kinesiology, presented a paper titled “Getting to maybe: Risk and uncertainty in youth sport specialization” on Sept. 6 at the 46th annual meeting of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport annual conference at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo, Norway. Hochstetler gleaned from both American philosophical themes, and current literature related to social change, to help partially address this issue regarding youth sport specialization. He contended that these conceptual ideas help provide language for us to think more clearly about some of the issues surrounding youth sport. 

• Tai-Yin Huang, professor of physics, presented or co-presented the following papers at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting in Washington, D.C.:
  • With Amaro-Rivera, Y., Henderson, J., Huang, T.-Y., and Urbina, J. “Air Light: Understanding its Make-up,” Dec. 11.
  • With Amaro-Rivera, Y., Vargas, F., Huang, T.-Y., and Urbina, J. “Variations of O(1S) and OH(6,2) airglow intensities over the Andes Lidar Observatory (ALO) (30.3°S, 70.7°W),” Dec. 13.
  • With Vanyo, M. “Trends in SABER Kinetic Temperatures and Groundbased Airglow Temperature Measurements in Comparison to Model Simulations,” Dec. 13.
• Tai-Yin Huang, professor of physics, participated in a number of service capacities this semester. Huang was an invited panelist for the Voices For Science Panel at the AGU fall meeting in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 13.  She was the team lead who organized congressional meetings for AGU Congressional Visits Day event.  She and three other researchers from Pennsylvania met with House Rep. Susan Wild and with Sen. Bob Casey’s staff on Dec. 12 then met with Rep. Matt Cartwright’s staff on Dec. 14 to talk about science research and funding for research. She served as primary convener for PA-008 Session “Bridging the gaps between science and science policy” and Primary Convener and Chair for SA-019 Session “The Interactions, Dynamics, and Energetics in the Andes (IDEA)” at the AGU Fall Meeting, July-December 2018.  She was appointed by President Barron to serve on the Commission for Women, October 2018.   She was co-convener for the AS32 Session “Thunderstorms, Lightning and Their Effects on Human Society” Session, 16th annual meeting of the Asia Oceanic Geosciences Society, in Singapore, November to August 2018.
• David Livert, associate professor of psychology at Penn State Lehigh Valley, and Ame Cividanes, director of language programs for Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University presented initial findings from a study of Yale students who spent four weeks with a host family in Spain on Nov. 9. The talk was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Council on International Education Exchange in Barcelona, Spain. During the 75-minute interactive session, Livert and Cividanes discussed the emotions encountered by the students prior to/at/during their sojourn in the Basque region of Spain. 

• Jacqueline S. McLaughlin, associate professor of biology and director of Penn State CHANCE, was invited by President Jose Loaiza of Universidad Católica Boliviana "San Pablo" Unidad Académica to visit Bolivia, and its surrounding areas from Nov. 15-21 as part of a new partnership to bring a short-term study abroad program focused on desertification and water issues in summer 2020. McLaughlin worked collaboratively with potential strategic partners, including university administration and faculty, and government officials and staff in pertinent non-governmental agencies, national and state parks, and corporations.
• Meteorologist Drew Anderson, lecturer in meteorology and geography, traveled to York County, Chester County, and Philadelphia to present lectures on space weather in August and September. He shared with the York and Chester Astronomical Societies, The Planet Society and members of the public how space weather can affect your everyday life.