Energy and Sustainability Engineering
Friday, June 12, 2026
On Friday, Penn Engineering Energy and Sustainability Engineering students and faculty had the incredible opportunity to visit Constellation Energy‘s Limerick Clean Energy Center, a 2.3 GW nuclear power plant only about an hour from Penn’s campus. We got to tour the plant, learn about refueling and spent fuel storage, and talk with engineers, safety leaders, and reactor control room operators about their day-to-day and career pathways. We’re so grateful to Frank Sturniolo (Constellation Senior Vice President of Governance and Oversight, and Penn Engineering alum) for making this happen and for taking the time to show us around the plant. It was inspiring to see all of the engineering that goes into making nuclear power so efficient, safe, and reliable, and inspiring for the students to get a taste of the kinds of jobs that their MESE degrees can prepare them for!
Friday, May 8, 2026
The MESE program hosted the Beyond the Benchtop Workshop, bringing together 60 interdisciplinary leaders, from students to faculty to executive directors to vice provosts, from Penn and beyond, to learn from each other and build collaborations to reshape our educational offerings. We know that STEM students need not only technical skills but also training in energy justice, energy policy, communication, and community engagement in order to become effective future climate leaders. As we’ve built out our Master’s Program in Energy and Sustainability Engineering here at Penn, we’ve been lucky to work with many collaborators to design opportunities for our students to turn their technical skills into real-world climate impact, and this workshop allowed us to share what we’ve learned and lay the foundation for even more initiatives.
Thursday, December 04, 2025 • 2:30 pm ET
Join SEAS Graduate Admissions for the official launch event of our new graduate program: the Master of Science in Engineering in Energy and Sustainability (MESE), a graduate program designed to prepare engineers to lead the transition toward a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable energy future.
The program is ideal for students with a technical background who want to specialize in energy and sustainability. With four concentration areas—Environment and Climate Solutions, Clean Energy Technology, Society and Policy, and Economics and Innovation—MESE offers the flexibility to tailor coursework to individual interests and career goals.
At this event, you will hear from the admission team about application requirements, learn about this new and exciting program from the Program Director, Dr. Lorena Grundy, and have the opportunity to ask admissions and program-related questions.
Watch the recording of the webinar below!
Saturday, April 5, 2025
Othman Alotaibi is a master’s student from Kuwait, where tire waste is rampant. He therefore decided to do a final project on tire recycling for Prof. Lorena Grundy’s CBE 5215 course on energy and sustainability, and was joined by Prajwal Poonacha, a CBE master’s student from India. As they researched the topic, they discovered that tire waste is also a concern in Philadelphia, and decided to volunteer to attend a cleanup event in the local Tacony Creek Park with Prof. Grundy and two of their classmates, Vyshnavi Chilla, a CBE master’s student from India, and Rithika Ramkimar, a CBE undergraduate from Maryland. With other Philadelphians, they removed 4000 tires, which saved about 80 tons of CO2e emissions, according to Othman and Prajwal’s calculations. Philadelphia, Penn, and the CBE department, including domestic students like Rithika, are enriched by the efforts of international students like Othman, Prajwal, and Rithika.
