Great leadership rests on two important traits: optimism about the future, and commitment to do both great and good things. The engineering profession and our country lost two great leaders this year who demonstrated both: Gordon Moore (1929–2023; NAE 1976) and Bill Wulf (1939–2023; NAE ...

With this issue I bid farewell to my Bridge partner, Managing Editor Cameron Fletcher. She is retiring after 11 years with the NAE and a total of 37(!) at the National Academies. She joined the NAE staff in June 2012 and so seamlessly and masterfully assumed her responsibilities that one NASEM ...

Engineering focuses not only on “what” but also on “how.” The US goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 is a monumental challenge—one of the greatest ever faced by our country.

To explore ways to reach this critical goal, the NAE President’s Business ...

“I especially love analogies, my most faithful masters, acquainted with all the secrets of nature…. One should make great use of them.”

      — Johannes Kepler

This century’s greatest engineering challenge may be orchestration of the energy ...

Engineers have the unique skills to develop models, technologies, and systems to guide policymakers and society through the energy transition.

Mitigating climate change while simultaneously increasing energy supply to meet growing energy needs equitably and securely is one of the world’s ...

Wind energy and EVs have demonstrated the value of wise materials choices and point the way forward for other clean energy technologies.

The deployment of any new technology at large scale burdens the supply of the materials from which it is made, and the availability (or lack thereof) of those ...

Energy storage is essential to a clean electricity grid, but aggressive decarbonization goals require development of long-duration energy storage technologies.

The job of an electric grid operator is, succinctly put, to keep supply and demand in constant balance, as even minor imbalances between ...

Numerous existing and emerging technologies can help chemical process and petroleum refining industries decarbonize their operations.

In 2018^[1] the US manufacturing sector used 19.4 percent of the country’s primary energy and emitted 17.5 percent of its total greenhouse gases (GHGs). The ...

Renewable raw materials can be exploited as alternatives to fossil fuel–based liquid transportation fuels, electrical power, and chemicals.

Among today’s greatest challenges is the development of sustainable and cost-effective ways to produce sufficient transportation fuels, ...

Achieving a net zero carbon society demands a new approach that will use all clean energy generation options available.

Governments and private industry around the world have established aggressive goals to achieve net zero carbon emissions for the power, industrial, and transportation sectors ...

Deployment of advanced reactors, clean hydrogen, and fusion energy requires private-public partnerships, investment, streamlined regulations, international cooperation, and policy support.

Decarbonization of the global economy in the near term necessarily focuses on current energy options for ...

Peer-to-peer trading benefits the grid through reductions in peak demand, reserve requirements, and operating costs as well as improved reliability.

Electricity generation is the largest source of carbon dioxide (CO₂) production, contributing about 40 percent of global energy-related emissions ...

As the power grid becomes both more essential and more vulnerable, new approaches are needed to ensure its resiliency.

Large-scale electric grids worldwide are in a time of rapid transition due to a variety of changes, including the addition of large amounts of renewable and distributed ...

The Gulf region can leverage its energy history, infrastructure, capacity, and expertise to lead the energy transition.

Beginning with some of the earliest American oil wells in the mid-19th century and continuing with the first true offshore oil rig in the 1940s, the US Gulf of Mexico region is ...

What are the most significant concerns and technical uncertainties for business leaders who allocate capital for the energy transition?

Commitments to a net zero carbon goal have increased dramatically over the past several years. However, countries are generally falling short of commitments ...