Rob Anex is an environmental engineer and the co-founder of a startup that traps carbon into cement, a major source of global CO2 emissions. The resulting product not only captures carbon, but also is stronger than regular cement. Rob’s curiosity didn’t start or end with saving the planet; he’s built bombs, written pieces on recycling, and currently teaches a rotating carousel of classes at UW Madison.

To see Rob's startup website and other sources that were used to research the episode, click here.

Trina McMahon is a civic engineer and microbiologist. She studies microbial communities in lake water and wastewater treatment plants and tends to approach problems from an engineering perspective.

There is some discussion in this episode about the “Super Bowl Halftime Flush,” the phenomenon of thousands of Americans flushing the toilet during halftime, with the potential to damage municipal water pipes with the sheer volume of sudden water consumption. Though the halftime does incur significant peaks of water usage, the damage is unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) an urban legend. Water treatment plants generally have bigger fish to fry than the Super Flush. Like morning showers and flooding.

Click here to read more about Trina’s work.

Research specialist Celeste Mezera wears many hats. Like a beekeeping hat. Or a cute crocheted strawberry. She’s also worked in outreach, and currently works at the Wisconsin Energy Institute, where she keeps a lab running day to day.

The paper and graphics discussed in this episode are linked here.