President's Perspective

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
– Mark Twain

What has been fundamental to many leadership theories over time is the tenet that good leadership is ...

There is no area of human activity more basic to society than a sustainable agricultural, food, and natural resource system. With projections that global population will grow to as much as 10 billion by 2050 (Pew Research Center 2022), there is increasing concern as to how this system should be ...

Nanotechnology will enable smarter strategies of food production while protecting the environment.

National pursuit of nanoscale science and engineering (NSE) for agriculture and food systems started in 2002 with a strategic roadmap workshop organized by the US Department of Agriculture. The ...

Genome engineering is enabling the design of enhanced organisms such as crops, livestock, and trees to promote sustainability.

The realm of biology and genetics is in the midst of a genome editing revolution, fueled by CRISPR-based technologies for manipulating and engineering the DNA ...

Protecting, restoring, and enhancing life on Earth begins and ends with the soil.

Agricultural sustainability and regeneration have become common approaches for driving improvements in US and global food and agriculture supply chains. Multistakeholder organizations have emerged over the past 2 ...

Progress in understanding and production of crops requires transdisciplinary collaboration and innovation.

Preparing for a future of resilient and sustainable agriculture that produces nutritious calories for the globe’s growing population requires a deeper understanding of the biology of ...

System-oriented precision agriculture production leverages sensors, machine learning, and cloud computing to enhance productivity.

Agricultural productivity has expanded for over a century because of successful replacement of human and animal power with mechanization combined with advances in ...

Research and new technologies are needed to develop precision plant growth and other systems alternatives for food production.

Food and agriculture systems (FASs) are physical and conceptual models of people’s use of natural and human-made resources to produce food, feed, fiber, fuel, and ...

Engineering advances in food processing ensure food safety and quality while reducing energy and waste.

Food product preservation has advanced rapidly over the past 75 years. Thermally processed shelf-stable food is available worldwide, and frozen foods with long shelf lives are available ...

We present an urban metabolism-based systems framework to assess resource circularity at the FEW nexus to support environmental sustainability, resilience, health, and equity.

This paper elucidates eight principles for designing a sustainable circular economy at the urban-regional ...

A facilitating policy framework is essential to capture the benefits of science and engineering for improved food systems.

As discussed in this issue of The Bridge, science and engineering offer tremendous opportunities for reforming food systems to improve human and ecosystem health. Impacts ...

RONALD LATANISION (RML): Good afternoon, Shahrokh. Thank you for talking with us. I understand you’re an electrical engineer, but you’ve taken tremendous interest in musical production and modern dance, which clearly go way beyond typical engineering. Tell us a little about your history ...

Engineers are not the first actors that come to mind when considering social justice issues, but they play an integral role in designing and operating the sociotechnical systems in which we work and live.

Factors of Concern

Decisions of engineers and the social power imbalances that exist around ...