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Computational sustainability meets materials science

Nature Reviews Materials volume 6, pages 645–647 (2021)Cite this article

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Computational sustainability harnesses computing and artificial intelligence for human well-being and the protection of our planet. Materials science is central to many sustainability challenges. Exploiting synergies between computational sustainability and materials science advances both fields, furthering the ultimate goal of establishing a sustainable future.

Humanity’s consumption of Earth’s resources endangers our planet and the livelihood of current and future generations. Our Common Future, the 1987 seminal report by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development led by Gro Brundtland, highlighted the interconnectedness of environmental, economic, and societal issues pertaining to sustainability, and introduced the notion of sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” In 2015, as part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 193 countries agreed on 17 ambitious goals, referred to as the Sustainable Development Goals.

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Acknowledgements

Computational sustainability research has been supported by an Expedition in Computing from the US National Science Foundation (NSF; CCF-1522054). eBird has been supported by the Leon Levy Foundation, the Wolf Creek Foundation, and NSF (DBI-1939187). Materials science research has also been supported by the AFOSR Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Program FA9550-18-1-0136, US DOE Award No.DE-SC0020383, and an award from the Toyota Research Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Institute for Computational Sustainability, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Carla P. Gomes

  2. Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Daniel Fink

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    R. Bruce van Dover

  4. Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    John M. Gregoire

Authors
  1. Carla P. Gomes
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  2. Daniel Fink
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  3. R. Bruce van Dover
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  4. John M. Gregoire
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The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article.

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Correspondence to Carla P. Gomes.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Related links

eBird: https://ebird.org

Institute for Computational Sustainability: http://computational-sustainability.cis.cornell.edu/

Materials Genome Initiative: https://www.mgi.gov

Materials Project: https://materialsproject.org/

Our Common Future: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/milestones/wced

Solar energy materials: https://www.liquidsunlightalliance.org/

Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals

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Gomes, C.P., Fink, D., van Dover, R.B. et al. Computational sustainability meets materials science. Nat Rev Mater 6, 645–647 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-021-00348-2

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