For the fifth year in a row, the Penn State Smeal College of Business Ethics Case Team brought a championship back to Happy Valley from the International Business Ethics Case Competition.

The Consortium on Moral Decision-Making’s "Expanding Empathy" Speaker Series returns for its seventh consecutive year starting Thursday, May 8. The virtual speaker series is an international, interdisciplinary examination of empathy and moral decision-making processes. Additional panels will take place on May 14 and 21.

The Consortium on Moral Decision-Making at Penn State recently awarded nine seed grants to support interdisciplinary research related to the conceptual and empirical study of human morality and ethical decision-making.

The Social Science Research Institute announced Jennifer Kowalkowski, assistant professor of nursing at the Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, is the winner of the 2025 Lloyd Prize for Innovative Health Research.  

Philosopher Kate Manne will visit Penn State to give the 2025 Richard B. Lippin Lecture in Ethics hosted by the Rock Ethics Institute. Her lecture “Ordinary Cruelty: Explaining Misogyny without Dehumanization” is free and open to the public. The event will be on Thursday, April 3, from 6-7 p.m. in Foster Auditorium (Paterno Library).

The Penn State Smeal College of Business Tarriff Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility has announced the addition of alumnus Jeff Montgomery to its advisory board. Montgomery is a director of global revenue strategy and operations at Apple.

While scientific research can help inform how communities adapt to heightened risks from more extreme weather events, the process requires an alignment of academic resources and real-world needs and partnerships that can be challenging for scientists to navigate. A team led by researchers from Penn State have developed a new framework to help scientists identify and choose projects that may better address pressing societal needs, like climate adaptations.

A panel of faculty and administrators will hold a virtual workshop exploring innovative approaches to ethics education and assessment in graduate programs from 2:30 to 4 p.m. on March 4. This free, 90-minute session, titled "Enhancing Ethics Education and Assessment in Graduate Programs," is designed for graduate program leaders.

Penn State’s Consortium on Moral Decision-Making and Moral Psychology Research Group recently hosted a conference to highlight interdisciplinary research on moral and ethical decision-making.

As research has revealed the potential dangers of concussions and other head injuries, questions have been raised about the ethics of the game of tackle football. Francisco Javier López Frías, associate professor of kinesiology, of philosophy and of bioethics at Penn State, explores some of these questions.