Penn State will celebrate the accomplishments of its graduates during its 2026&nbsp;summer commencement ceremonies, which will be held Saturday, Aug. 15.&nbsp;During the weekend, the University will pass its 1 millionth degree-granted threshold.

Penn State to hold 2026 summer commencement at University Park on Aug. 15 | Penn State University

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Penn State will celebrate the accomplishments of its graduates during its 2026 summer commencement ceremonies, which will be held Saturday, Aug. 15. During the weekend, the University will pass its 1 millionth degree-granted threshold.

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Campus Life

Penn State to hold 2026 summer commencement at University Park on Aug. 15

Great Valley

For Chancellor Colin Neill, higher education must continue evolving to meet the changing needs of society. Neill reflects on Penn State Great Valley's distinctive graduate education mission and how the campus partners with employers, nonprofit organizations and local government to prepare working professionals, strengthen organizations and serve the greater Philadelphia area.

WATCH: Penn State Great Valley, a commitment to the greater Philadelphia area | Penn State University

For Chancellor Colin Neill, higher education must continue evolving to meet the changing needs of society. Neill reflects on Penn State Great Valley's distinctive graduate education mission and how the campus partners with employers, nonprofit organizations and local government to prepare working professionals, strengthen organizations and serve the greater Philadelphia area.

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WATCH: Penn State Great Valley, a commitment to the greater Philadelphia area 

Penn State will cross a historic threshold this week when it awards its one millionth degree at summer commencement ceremonies on Aug. 15 at the University Park campus.

Penn State to award one millionth degree Aug. 15 | Penn State University

Penn State will cross a historic threshold this week when it awards its one millionth degree at summer commencement ceremonies on Aug. 15 at the University Park campus.

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Administration

Penn State to award one millionth degree Aug. 15

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Latest News

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Around Campus

More research news

Parents who run with a stroller are significantly less likely to experience overuse injuries than those who run without one, with a 55% lower injury rate per 1,000 miles run, according to a new study from Penn State researchers.

Parents who run with a stroller have lower risk of overuse injury | Penn State University

Parents who run with a stroller are significantly less likely to experience overuse injuries than those who run without one, with a 55% lower injury rate per 1,000 miles run, according to a new study from Penn State researchers.

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Research

Agricultural Sciences

College of Agricultural Sciences

Bumblebees are able to learn to associate new odors with their colony’s queen, instead of being preprogrammed to recognize the queen’s pheromones from birth, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.

Bumblebees can learn to associate new smells with their queen | Penn State University

Bumblebees are able to learn to associate new odors with their colony’s queen, instead of being preprogrammed to recognize the queen’s pheromones from birth, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.

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Engineering

College of Engineering

A research project, led by Penn State engineers including Saptarshi Das, Wooram Lee and Ram Naranyan, seeking to create a sort of digital brain inspired by the processes insects and small animals use to make smart decisions with limited information, has been awarded $12 million by the U.S. Army through the Army’s Research Laboratory.&nbsp;

$12M grant to build animal-inspired sensing for autonomous drones and robots | Penn State University

A research project, led by Penn State engineers including Saptarshi Das, Wooram Lee and Ram Naranyan, seeking to create a sort of digital brain inspired by the processes insects and small animals use to make smart decisions with limited information, has been awarded $12 million by the U.S. Army through the Army’s Research Laboratory. 

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Featured Research

A new study, led by a team from Penn State College of Medicine, found that when teenagers go to sleep and when they wake up may be the driving force behind what teenagers eat and how much they move. Teens who went to sleep later and woke up later were more likely to consume more calories, snack more and be less physically active — especially when in school compared to on break from school.

Study: Teens' sleep patterns affect their diet, exercise

A thick layer of haze around the ultra-low-density planet Kepler-51d likely obscures not only the strange planet’s composition, but also its origin, according to a new study. A team led by Penn State researchers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to take a deeper look at the “super-puff” planet that defies planetary formation models.

'Cotton candy’ planet hides its secrets beneath a massive layer of haze

Lightning formation and the conditions triggering it have long been shrouded in a cloud of mystery, but new research led by Penn State scientists is lifting the fog. Using mathematical calculations, the researchers discovered that lightning-like discharge doesn’t require a storm cloud — it could be made inside everyday material on a lab bench.

Researchers make mini-lightning in a block of plastic

Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi shared her thoughts in a new blog in Forbes highlighting the importance of valuing people in the age of AI — and how universities like Penn State are preparing students for the workplaces of the future.

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Tardigrades, commonly known as water bears, may be better suited by a new name: Tardiguardians of the Galaxy. Unlike the fictional ragtag team of unenthusiastic heroes, the microscopic animals are providing real insight into how humans could adapt extraterrestrial resources to support space exploration, as well as whether such resources could help protect against the Earthly contaminants that humans might shed. This is according to an international study co-led by Penn State Altoona Professor of Microbiology Corien Bakermans.

‘Water bears’ reveal potential for adapting, protecting Martian resources

Thunderstorms often illuminate the night sky with flashes of lightning. They also seem to make treetops glow and sparkle — although the phenomenon is pretty much invisible to the naked eye. In a study led by Penn State published Feb. 12 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, scientists provide the first direct observations of the weak electrical discharges around trees in nature.

Scientists capture first-ever ultraviolet 'sparkles' from treetops

Penn State researchers have developed a new high-temperature polymer capacitor that can store four times more energy than conventional designs while operating at temperatures up to 482 degrees Fahrenheit. The advance could improve power systems in electric vehicles, data centers, aerospace systems and other high-heat environments where today’s capacitors quickly fail.

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A new study offers a look at how the building blocks of life might have originated in the cosmos. Penn State scientists suggest that the amino acids found on the asteroid Bennu did not require warm, liquid water to form, as previously assumed. The team analyzed tiny samples, consisting of roughly 4.6-billion-year-old rocks, delivered by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to Earth in 2023.

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Researchers at Penn State say they’ve developed a new hydrogel material inspired by octopus skin that can encode images directly into its structure. The imprinted images then disappear and reappear when the skin is exposed to subtle changes in temperature or a surrounding solvent. The result is a “4D” synthetic smart skin capable of revealing hidden images and shifting surface patterns.

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How a new father behaves toward his baby can change family dynamics in a way that affects the child’s heart and metabolic health years later, according to a new study by researchers in the Penn State College of Health and Human Development.

Early dad's involvement linked to lasting child health, study finds

About half of older men suffer from sleep problems, back pain or both, according to Soomi Lee, associate professor of human development and family studies at Penn State. Lee recently led a study to investigate whether one precedes the other and found that back problems can predict sleep problems years later in men over 65 years old.

Study: Back pain might predict future sleep problems among men

Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi was featured in a CEO Magazine interview highlighting her belief in the transformative power of higher education and her efforts to expand access, advance ethical innovation, and strengthen the university’s educational, research, and economic impact.

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A new study led by researchers at Penn State found melanoma case rates tracking higher in counties with higher areas of cultivated land, where the use of chemical herbicides and pesticides can be higher.

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In a significant advancement for materials science, scientists have successfully created niobium sulfide metallic nanotubes with stable, predictable properties for the first time. An international team, including Penn State researchers, achieved the long-sought feat using an unexpected ingredient—common table salt. According to researchers, the discovery could pave the way for faster electronics, efficient superconducting wires, and future quantum technologies.

Study: Common salt helps create nanomaterial for high-speed electronics

Researchers at Penn State have proposed a novel design for a lithium-ion (Li) battery. It could address the long-standing performance and stability issues of standard Li batteries in extreme temperatures. The design, dubbed the All-Climate Battery (ACB), was developed to fix a core flaw in standard Li batteries.

‘All-Climate Battery’ developed at Penn State could keep EVs running in extreme heat, cold

The discovery of a possible “super-Earth” less than 20 light-years from our own planet is offering scientists new hope in the hunt for other worlds that could harbor life, according to an international team including researchers from Penn State. They dubbed the exoplanet, named GJ 251 c, a “super-Earth” as data suggest it is almost four times as massive as the Earth and likely to be rocky planet.