Georgia Institute of Technology School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

To generate the energy delivered to each home, business and industrial user in the United States each year, trillions of gallons of water are required for energy production, processing, conversion and transport. However, the exact amount of water withdrawn from the environment and consumed for each energy source has never been quantified — until now.

By analyzing genomic sequences from more than 400 strains of the bacterium that causes anthrax, researchers have provided the first evidence that the severity — technically known as virulence — of specific strains may be related to the number of copies of certain plasmids they carry. Plasmids are genetic structures of the cell that can reproduce independently, and are responsible for producing the anthrax toxin and other virulence factors.

The world of fully autonomous vehicles is inevitable, according to one of the newest faculty members in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The question is, how do we get there with the right policies and investments — and without so many bumps in the road that public trust erodes along the way.

Michael Rodgers received the University System of Georgia’s highest research recognition August 14 when the Board of Regents named him a Regents Researcher.