Professor David Frost stands at the entrance of the Geosynthetic Institute's new home on Means Street.
The Geosynthetic Institute (GSI) is relocating to Georgia Tech and bringing with it a new range of opportunities for students interested in this dynamic and growing field.
Geosynthetics are a category of materials—textiles, grids, membranes, composites, and more—that are used in infrastructure projects like roads, retaining walls and landfills.
Professor David Frost, the new president of the Geosynthetic Institute, said geosynthetic materials are an important technology for engineers working to design more resilient infrastructure to withstand the increasingly severe natural disasters of the future.
“Geosynthetics are a resilience maker,” Frost said. “Whether to enhance the strength, alter the hydraulic conductivity, limit the deformation or control various rate processes, geosynthetics inherently augment the engineering properties of natural geomaterials.”
David Frost standing inside the future home of the Geosynthetic Insitute.
The Geosynthetic Institute, previously based in Philadelphia, is an a member-supported organization made up of businesses throughout the geosynthetic industry. The Institute’s Board of Directors voted in 2025 to select Georgia Tech as its new home. Frost is overseeing the organization’s move to a facility on Means Street later this year.
Frost, a Regents’ Entrepreneur and the Higginbotham Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been conducting research on geosynthetics for more than 20 years.
He envisions the center putting that research “on steroids,” enabling post-doctoral researchers and Ph.D. students to work at the Geosynthetic Institute,
in addition to opening more research opportunities for master’s students and undergraduates students.
The research and education activities undertaken by GSI are intended to support all sectors of the geosynthetics industry as infrastructure application and solutions are proposed and developed.
The Geosynthetic Institute’s Means Street facility is being renovated, with plans for four laboratories, offices, and meeting spaces. The labs will be utilized by researchers bringing expertise in analysis, resilience, and sensors.
Frost is excited about the Geosynthetics Institute’s potential to offer a whole new model of university research and education. His goal is to create entrepreneurially minded graduate students who can put their research out into the world and help member companies advance the field of geosynthetics.
“A lot of good research gets done in universities and then it gets put on a shelf,” Frost said. “I’m trying to encourage students to think through their research collaboratively with industry and say ‘is there something there that could become the seed for a new product or even a startup company?”
I’m trying to encourage students to think through their research collaboratively with industry and say ‘is there something there that could become the seed for a new product or even a startup company?'
Professor David Frost, president of the Geosynthetic Institute
Unlike a typical grant-funded university research center, GSI is a membership organization made up of a wide range of industry partners that pay dues annually. In addition, the organization has an endowment that can provide can provide additional support for GSI in the future.
While most research grants have a term of a few years, the funding from the Geosynthetic Institute “is potentially a lifetime contract,” Frost said.
Frost emphasized the importance of acquiring different funding sources in light of recent changes to federal grant funding.
“Times have changed, and in all honesty, I don’t think they’re going back,” Frost said.
Karen and John Huff School Chair Don Webster said GSI will help to diversify Georgia Tech’s research funding portfolio.
“GSI represents an excellent example of engaging key industry partners with a self-sustaining funding model,” Webster said. “We are grateful for Dr. Frost’s leadership to bring GSI to the State of Georgia and Georgia Tech.”
Another benefit of the Geosynthetic Institute’s industry membership is the opportunities that will open for students.
Frost explains the plans for the future site of the Geosynthetic Institute at Georgia Tech.
“I’m trying to create this ecosystem around the geosynthetics industry,” Frost said. “In the Southeast there is a concentration of companies with headquarters and facilities here. Geographically, this is a great place to be. We need to embrace that and take advantage of that proximity.”
Frost said GSI works with all sectors of the geosynthetic industry beginning with polymer and product manufacturers to the designers, installers, operators and owners of geosynthetically enhanced infrastructure systems.
As part of the move, the Geosynthetic Institute added two new focus areas: Artificial Intelligence and Hazard Resilience.
Frost said significant developments in infrastructure design and construction are usually in response to newly realized problems or challenges—in this case, natural and man-made hazards — and are often facilitated by new technologies and solution approaches—artificial intelligence.
“When challenges and solution paths emerge simultaneously, transformational developments can occur,” Frost said. “The co-emergence of increasing natural hazards and their impact on society and the rapid developments of data science solutions creates a wonderful opportunity for the geosynthetic industry to merge them in addressing critical societal challenges.”