What are the odds that two Penn State professors married to each other are able to both receive Fulbright awards for consecutive semesters in the same country? For Luis Ayala and Zuleima Karpyn, luck seemed to be on their side. Ayala, William A. Fustos Family Professor in Energy and Mineral Engineering, and Karpyn, professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering, both received the Fulbright-Colciencias Innovation and Technology Award from the Fulbright Program to conduct research in Colombia for the fall 2016 and spring 2017 semesters.

Penn State’s Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) was recently named a 2016 Outstanding Student Chapter by the national SPE organization. The chapter will be recognized during a luncheon at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in September.

A paper written by Michael Cavazza, a Schreyer Scholar majoring in petroleum and natural gas engineering, won first place in the Eastern North America regional Society of Petroleum Engineers student paper contest, held April 9 at Louisiana State University. Cavazza will advance to the final, international round of the contest, which will be held Sept. 26-28 at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition in Dubai. His paper explores way to combine hydraulic fracturing and acid mine drainage to improve water quality in Pennsylvania streams.

Tyler Stom and Adam Larson had a vision: to unite students interested in energy-industry careers around the idea of giving back to the community through environmental activities. The duo, both petroleum and natural gas engineering students in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, took the first step in making their dream a reality by forming a campus organization called Positive Energy. On Earth Day, the club made its first positive impact by planting 201 trees in Roaring Branch, Pennsylvania.