News and Notes

Center for Immersive Experiences launched

Penn State will be equipped to meet the needs of students, faculty and a society at large that is progressively more reliant on immersive technology with the opening of the Center for Immersive Experiences. The center, with physical space in Pattee Library and collaborators in 11 different academic units, is housed in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.

Numerous honors for faculty member’s film

Bellisario College assistant professor Boaz Dvir won Best Director in the Green section of the NEZ International Film Festival in West Bengal, India, for a documentary short. The film, “El País de la Eterna Primavera (Land of the Eternal Spring),” also: won Best Micro Film at a monthly online competition in Santiago, Chile; was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the Motion Pictures Film Festival in Salt Lake City, Utah; and was a finalist at the Silver Screen International Film Festival in Tampa, Florida.

Faculty member elected ICA president

Respected faculty member Mary Beth Oliver has been elected president of the International Communication Association, which has more than 4,500 members in 80 countries. Oliver, the Donald P. Bellisario Professor of Media Studies, will serve as president-elect beginning on May 25, 2020 — the last day of the association’s annual conference in Australia — and will move into the position of president a year later, continuing until the end of its 2022 conference in France.