Civil and environmental engineering

Prof. Desirée Plata, director of MIT’s Methane Network, spoke with Boston Globe reporter Kate Selig about how regional supermarkets are addressing their methane footprints. Plata notes that “grocers could make an impact through improving their waste management practices. And beyond operational changes, she said supermarkets can help shape the public’s understanding of climate issues,” Selig writes. “Most people go to the grocery store,” says Plata. “They have this great opportunity to educate people.”

Visiting Scientist Judah Cohen speaks with USA Today reporter Doyle Rice about how the polar vortex could send a blast over cold air to areas of the central and eastern United States. “I believe that the entire cycle of a weak or disrupted polar vortex that began at the end of November is coming to its conclusion by the end of next week,” explains Cohen. “Clearly, the polar vortex is strengthening and some period of milder weather in the central and eastern U.S. looks inevitable to me.”  

A new paper by Prof. Admir Masic and his colleagues reinforces his theory that the ancient Romans used a technique called “hot-mixing” to create concrete, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. “The evidence resides at an ancient Roman construction site preserved in great detail by the Mount Vesuvius eruption,” explains Paul. “Isotopic analysis confirmed that the workers in Pompeii relied on hot-mixing when making their concrete.” 

By studying a workshop that was buried in Pompeii almost 2,000 years ago, Prof. Admir Masic and his colleagues have uncovered how the ancient Romans created self-healing and long-lasting concrete, reports James Woodford for New Scientist. Masic and his team were stunned at how “exceptionally well preserved” the site was and that it offered an opportunity to understand Roman concreting methods in a way that “no laboratory reconstruction could ever replicate”. He adds: “The materials were exactly as they were at the moment the eruption froze the city in time,”

While visiting a house that was under renovation when Mount Vesuvius erupted, MIT researchers were able to confirm the tools and ingredients used by ancient Romans to create long-lasting concrete, reports Humberto Basilio for Scientific American. “The hot mixing method creates fragmented, highly porous lime clasts within the mortar that allow calcium to easily travel through the material and recrystallize to fill cracks,” Basilio explains. “Understanding and mastering this “self-healing” technology will allow engineers to use the technique in modern construction.” 

Prof. Admir Masic and his colleagues have confirmed that ancient Romans utilized “hot-mixing,” a technique that combines quicklime with volcanic rock, volcanic ash, and water, to create concrete that has lasted for thousands of years, reports Margherita Bassi for Gizmodo. “The team also discovered weights and measurement tools, which they propose may have been used to maintain concrete pouring ratios and build straight, even walls,” writes Bassi. “In short, the site revealed the clearest evidence yet of the ancient Roman use of hot-mixing in concrete.” 

While analyzing samples from a newly-discovered construction site in Pompeii, researchers at MIT confirmed the ingredients and methods behind the ancient Romans’ durable and self-healing concrete, reports Will Dunham for Reuters. "Modern concretes generally lack intrinsic self-healing capability, which is increasingly important as we seek longer-lasting, lower-maintenance infrastructure," explains Prof. Admir Masic. "While the ancient process itself is not a direct replacement for modern standards, the principles revealed can inform the design of next-generation durable, low-carbon concretes."

Visiting Scientist Judah Cohen shares his thoughts on how the polar vortex will impact weather across the U.S. this December, reports Doyle Rice for USA Today. "My thinking is that the cold the first week of December is the appetizer and the main course will be in mid-December," Cohen explains. 

Visiting scientist Judah Cohen speaks with Gizmodo reporter Ellyn Lapointe about how sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) could bring wintry temperatures to parts of the northern hemisphere next week. According to Cohen “this explains why forecasters expect western states to bear the brunt of next week’s cold temperatures, but that could still change,” writes Lapointe. 

Visiting Scientist Judah Cohen speaks with Newsweek reporter Amanda Greenwood about how a disruption of the polar vortex can impact the 2025-2026 winter outlook. “A sudden stratospheric warming [is] the largest type of disruption that occurs to the polar vortex,” says Cohen. “It is named because of the dramatic warming that occurs in the polar stratosphere (warming near the North Pole can exceed 100 degrees in just a few days). The warming displaces the polar vortex much further south than normal.”

Visiting scientist Judah Cohen speaks with USA Today reporters Doyle Rice and Janet Loehrke about how the polar vortex and La Niña could impact winter weather across the country. Overall, Cohen believes that "the behavior of the polar vortex is more influential in determining if the U.S. will experience cold weather."

New York Times reporter Annabel Keenan highlights the “Remembering the Future” exhibit at the MIT Museum, a sculptural installation created by Janet Echelman that uses “climate data from the last ice age to the present, as well as projected future environments, to create a geometric design.” Echelman worked with MIT faculty, including Prof. Raffaele Ferrari and Prof. Caitlin Mueller, to bring the project to life. Mueller explains that she developed a “high-fidelity digital twin of the sculpture generated through our computational simulation that you can orbit and pan through to get perspectives that you can’t see physically in the space.” 

Prof. Charles Harvey speaks with Newsweek reporter Jasmine Laws about the Environmental Working Group (EWG)’s Tap Water Database which has revealed that 29 states have one or more water utilities with levels of “arsenic higher than the EPA’s maximum containment level.” Harvey shares: "I’m not surprised that this many water utilities would need to treat their water for arsenic, but I am surprised that this many fail to do so.” 

Researchers at MIT have developed electron-conducting carbon concrete, a new kind of cement “that can store and release electricity like batteries,” reports Matthew Burgos for Design Boom. “MIT’s concrete battery shows a future where the material can be embedded into roads or parking areas to charge electric vehicles directly, or for off-grid homes that do not need external power,” Burgos explains.

Prof. Caitlin Mueller has been named Innovator of the Year by Architectural Record for her work advancing a “vision for building design and construction that unites these disciplines with computation to create structure that are sustainable, high performing, and delightful,” reports Architectural Record. “Her group develops computational design and digital fabrication methods that integrate efficiency, performance, material circularity, and architectural expression,” Architectural Record notes. “This work spans robotic assembly of optimized trusses, fabrication of low-cost earthen and concrete systems, and algorithmic strategies for reusing salvaged wood and reassembled concrete parts.”