What civil engineers are reading this week

• Your 2025 president-elect built a successful business, but how does she like her pizza?

  Marsha Anderson Bomar, who grew up in Brooklyn playing stickball, shares her favorite hobbies, civil engineering landmark, and pizza topping. What sports team’s jersey is she likely to wear on the weekend?

• Shoppers aren't as motivated by sustainability as they claim, research finds

  Consumers who consider themselves to be “sustainable practitioners” may not be as well intentioned toward the environment as they claim, research shows.

• Water, sewer infrastructure boosts communities, but quick economic boom is not a lock

  Civil engineers have long assumed that adding water and sewage yields economic development in rural areas; new data suggests it might be less straightforward. Which variables affect the outcome?

• Microplastic menace: North Pacific garbage patch is worse than anyone expected

  A study on the garbage patch indicates a rapid rise in small plastic fragments, outpacing the accumulation of larger plastics and posing serious risks to marine ecosystems and the global carbon cycle.

• West Coast braces for ‘bomb cyclone’

  A low-pressure system headed for Northern California and Oregon is likely to bring extreme rain and strong winds.

• Trump taps Duffy, Fox host and ex-congressman, for transportation secretary

  If confirmed, Sean Duffy would lead a department with an annual budget of more than $100 billion and 57,000 employees involved in maintaining our aviation system, highways, railroads, and ports.