Have you ever wondered which Penn State professor has been featured on Polish stamps alongside Nicolaus Copernicus, or how about the professor who was awarded the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest award for lifetime achievement in scientific research, for his work on statistics? Well if you check out Penn State’s Professor Trading Cards, then you would know that the answers to those questions are Dr. Alexander Wolszczan of the Astronomy Dept. and Dr. C. R. Rao of the Statistics Dept. (respectively).

“The Penn State Faculty Trading Cards, an idea given birth to by the University’s President Graham B. Spanier, are double-sided ten-card sets showcasing just a few of the many outstanding faculty at the University.”

The cards are available to view and even download online, and they have some seriously interesting facts on them about Penn State Professors past and present. Some highlights:

• Physics Professor Moses Chan discovered a new phase a matter (the traditional three being solid, liquid, and gas) called supersolid, which doesn’t exhibit any friction.
• Biology Professor Masatoshi Nei proved that modern humans originated in Africa.
• If you’re a fan of CSI, you can thank Chemistry Professor Mary Willard for pioneering many of the processes used in modern crime scene investigation.
• Poetry fans have probably heard of the name Theodore Roethke, but did you know that he was a Penn State English professor and the coach of the Men’s Tennis Team? He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for his book, The Waking.

Here are PDFs of all three years of the cards: 2007, 2008, 2009.