Topic: infrastructure

NSF funds foundational work through Advanced Manufacturing, Design, and Operations; Engineering for the Built Environment; Intelligent and Interactive Dynamic Systems; Materials Design and Engineering; and Mechanics of Materials and Structures. The solicitation connects manufacturing processes and systems, designed materials, infrastructure, intelligent systems and multiscale mechanics. Proposals may address transformative methods, including scientifically justified computation, AI and automation. Standard or continuing grants support projects of varied scale and duration under the solicitatio

Antoine Allanore explains why carbon dioxide emissions are so closely tied to the chemistry of conventional steel production. The episode connects steel’s widespread use in transport, infrastructure and buildings with its industrial climate footprint, and examines scientific and engineering approaches intended to reduce emissions from making the metal.

Tom Herring introduces high-precision geodetic measurements using satellite navigation, very-long-baseline interferometry and radar interferometry. He explains how improved accuracy and cheaper receivers expand studies of plate motion, earthquake-related deformation and Earth rotation, with further applications in infrastructure and agriculture.

Richard Montgomery explores graph theory as the mathematics underlying networks, from infrastructure to biological connections. He discusses his contribution to the proof of Ringel’s conjecture and why extremal questions about graphs are mathematically productive. The interview follows recognition of his work with an EMS Prize.