Penn Climate

The ISAC program offers support for University of Pennsylvania instructors to incorporate sustainability into a new or existing course by fully funding a paid undergraduate or graduate research assistant for the academic summer term.

The call for proposals from faculty and lecturers for Summer 2026 is open and the deadline has been extended to Mon., Jan. 26.

Find all the details on how to apply: https://bit.ly/3ZbYsH5

Can civic education equip citizens to navigate the climate crisis?

Join leading scholars Sanya Carley, Michael Feuer, and Susan Yoon for an interdisciplinary conversation about civic learning, climate change, and energy policy, moderated by Penn GSE Dean Katharine Strunk.

📆 Tues., Jan. 20
⏰ 5:00 - 6:30 PM
📍263–64 Stiteler Hall, 208 South 37th Street (in-person event)
✏️ Register: https://bit.ly/4sGAamf

For nearly a decade, Leigh Stearns, professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Penn, and collaborators aimed a laser scanner system at Greenland’s Helheim Glacier. Their long-running survey reveals that Helheim’s massive calving events don’t behave the way scientists once thought, reframing how ice loss contributes to sea-level rise.

Now, after nearly a decade, Stearns and her team have published their findings in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface. They find that, even after losing kilometer-scale slabs of ice in some calving events, Helheim’s flow speed—how quickly it advances or retreats—shows almost no sustained change.

https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/massive-chunk-ice-new-laser-and-new-information-sea-level-rise

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Penn Climate's January newsletter is out, sharing details about the Jan. 28 Climate Seminar with Vagelos Prof. Karen Goldberg, a faculty profile with SEAS’ Prof. Nathaniel Wei, a project focused on Penn’s biophilic design, and a preview of Energy Week 2026. Read the newsletter https://mailchi.mp/upenn/penn-climate-january2026

Penn Climate Seminar with Karen Goldberg, Vagelos Professor in Energy Research and Chemistry

"Developing Alternatives to Oil as Feedstocks for our Chemicals and Liquid Fuels"

📆 Wed., Jan. 28, 2026
⏰ 12:15 – 1:15 PM
📍 Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, Room 350 (In-person only)
✔️ Register here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/penn-climate-seminar-karen-goldberg-tickets-1978890679292?aff=oddtdtcreator
🥪 Lunch provided

Karen Goldberg is Vagelos Professor in Energy Research and Chemistry, and the inaugural Director of the Vagelos Institute for Energy Science and Technology. In this presentation, she will describe how we arrived at our current energy landscape, projections on where we are going, and present some of the exciting strategies that scientists are pursuing to allow us to use natural gas, carbon dioxide and even waste plastic to prepare our chemicals and fuels in the future.

Are you a Penn graduate student interested in community-engaged scholarship?
Consider the Provost’s Graduate Academic Engagement Fellowship (PGAEF), administered by the Netter Center for Community Partnerships.

Fellows are outstanding students who are involved in community-engaged scholarship and related activities, including Academically Based Community Service (ABCS), participatory action research, service-learning, and learning by teaching in public schools.

📌 Apply for the 2026–2028 fellowship:
https://bit.ly/3L0QFIW

📌 Register for an upcoming info session:
https://bit.ly/4sebtxf

🗓️ Application deadline: February 23, 2026

Real vs Fake - in terms of sustainability?

Penn Engineering professor Lorena Grundy says people looking to make a sustainable decision should consider how many years they would use an artificial tree, how they plan to dispose of a real tree, and how the tree was transported. Read the Penn Today article: https://bit.ly/3KGheTH

Save the date for Energy Week at Penn 2026: February 23 – 27. Join us for a week of energy programming across Penn’s campus. Now accepting event submissions!

Energy Week brings the Penn community together to explore energy challenges, solutions, and research through seminars, panels, workshops, and more. Interested in hosting an energy-related event and contributing to the conversation? Add your event to the Energy Week calendar: https://bit.ly/4pEhXDL

Still looking to fill your class schedule University of Pennsylvania students?

Water Worlds: Cultural Responses to Sea Level Rise and Catastrophic Flooding
Satisfies Gen Req III: Arts & Letters
GRMN 1130/CIMS 1130/COML 1130/ENVS 1040
with Prof. Simon Richter
M and W 10:15-11:15

Melting ice caps, retreating glaciers, storm surges, hurricanes, extreme drought, sinking islands and subsiding cities. This is our new reality. But stories about floods and submerged cities have long occupied the human imagination. In this course, we will turn to literary and cinematic narratives from countries and regions across the world to help us understand our relationship to water differently. Find out how the humanities play an important part in confronting the problems and challenges caused by the climate crisis and sea level rise. Prepare to be surprised!

In this week’s Climate Concepts Simplified, we’re exploring why biodiversity is essential to climate stability. 🌱

According to the IPCC and IPBES, ecosystems with high biodiversity absorb more carbon, recover faster from extreme events, and support services we rely on every day, from clean water and pollination to food security and disease regulation.

Penn researchers study these same dynamics here in Philadelphia, from urban heat and pollinator health to local biodiversity monitoring through programs like the Penn BioBlitz. Protecting species and restoring ecosystems isn’t just conservation, it’s climate action.

Sources: IPCC AR6 (2023), IPBES Global Assessment (2019), UN CBD (2022), Penn Climate Week Programs

What climate topic should we break down next? Drop your ideas below!