The Grand Challengers Podcast

Mashael Yazdanie, Group Leader, Scientist and Lecturer at the Urban Energy Systems Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Materials Science & Technology (Empa) traces her journey across the renewable energies towards more holistic thinking around energy, sustainability, society and sufficiency. We cover her projects in both the global north and south, key concepts such as planetary boundaries, sufficiency, efficiency and doughnu...

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series wi...

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series wi...

Don Weatherbee, CEO of Regenx Tech Corp in Alberta, Canada shows us how you can scale up metals recycling (or regeneration as he calls it) sustainably. We discuss his journey from studying accounting to joining the mining and resources industry and how he is now leveraging opportunities to close the loop and create the circular economy around critical metals worldwide, in particular, the opportunity of aligning chemistry, process a...

Welcome to this Mini-Series on The Grand Challengers Podcast! The topic of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been in all our minds over the past few years and is gaining even more momentum with rapid advancements in text, audio and video. Google recently released NotebookLM, a powerful research-support AI that can generate not only summaries of sources that we feed it, but also entire podcast episodes. This Mini-Series wi...

João P. Leitão, Senior Researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology (Eawag), Professor at ETH Zurich and the first guest of this podcast returns for a Part 2 to reflect on the podcast 40 episodes later, more fun topics about Portugal and major research topics that we did not cover on the first episode including urban drainage asset management, urban heat mitigation and the central role that water pl...

Lucas Gobatti, PhD research at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) goes deep into how Albert Einstein, Benedictus de Spinoza and Karl Marx have shaped his worldview and connection to cities and nature. As a trained architect, civil engineer and urban planner, we discuss how he balances science and spirituality in his research on urban heat and stormwater management and how we can imp...

Patricia Cuervo Uría, Regional Delivery Manager at Binnies in the UK, Chartered Planner and fellow member of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) discusses her experience in planning for flood risk and discussing the impending challenge of mental health in relation to climate change. With over 18 years of experience in delivering local government services and implementation, we reflect on some lar...

Brett Ferrin, Vice President of Sales North America at Traffic Logix discusses the evolving and more complex nature of traffic safety management and gives insight into the many ways we can ensure safety on our roads for vehicle operators and other users. We discuss the implications of rapidly exploding amounts of data and the potential of artificial intelligence to revolutionize and upheave safety planning including driverless cars...

To finish off 2024 and reflect on the 35 episodes of The Grand Challengers Podcast so far, here is a very special episode. Guests from across the show got to ask me a question of their choosing and I have compiled them into a special episode titled "Tables Turned". In this episode, we look into 22 questions relating to the origin story and plans for the podcast, what it has taught me, my life and career choices, me answer...

Yannick Back, Research Fellow at the Unit of Environmental Engineering, Innsbruck University shares an alternative way of looking at planning for urban heat mitigation, which is the intrinsic link between water and energy fluxes. We discuss how Yannick has harnessed the power of remote sensing (both aerial and satellite data sets) and geographic information systems to develop new ways of assessing and mitigating urban heat in citie...

Denise Mitrano, Assistant Professor in the Environmental System Science Department at ETH Zurich sheds some light into the topic of plastics pollution, from macro and micro to nano. Trained as an analytical chemist, we hear how Denise is using her skills to better understand how we can quantify, replace and reduce the sources for better environmental and human health protection. We also reflect on the role that science needs to pla...

Bill Hunt, Professor and Extension specialist at North Carolina State University, USA shares with us his journey from a love of hydrology to creating major impact in America's stormwater management. We cover his achievements in the field of stormwater green infrastructure, his current activities in ancient Roman engineering and hear his wisdom on life lessons he has learnt along the way and our vital connection to water. Life ...

Luis Angel Sañudo Fontaneda, Associate Professor at the University of Oviedo, Spain, brings us on a journey through Spain's history in adopting Sustainable Drainage Systems and how its dynamic policies have shifted towards climate adaptation and sustainability. We look into the marvel of pervious pavements and swale systems, an engineering-focussed start to the Blue-Green Infrastructure journey and reflect on the challenges of...

Neil Armitage, Emeritus Professor from the University of Cape Town reflects on his journey from engineering through to academia and the human side of sustainable drainage systems. We reflect on South Africa's integrated urban water management challenges and have fun picking at terminology around SuDS, WSUD, LIDs and the like. We see what Neil is up to at the moment and look back at the major lessons he has learnt.

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Tobias Baur, Professor in Landscape Architecture at the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST), Rapperswil and former partner at Studio Ramboll-Dreiseitl, sheds some light on Singapore's Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters Program, the country's journey in water management, and how sponge cities have evolved from stormwater to climate adaptation in recent years in Asia and Europe. We discuss the important...

Katrin Pakizer, Research Associate from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology (Eawag) joins us to discuss how to create transformative change and to transition cities towards more sustainable natural resources management from the lenses of water infrastructure, biodiversity and all the many infrastructures and resources beneath our feet. We look at the c...

Alexa Delbosc, Associate Professor at the Monash University Institute of Transport Studies, Australia demonstrates how social psychology concepts and thinking can be applied to transport planning. We explore a variety of topics including dehumanization of cyclists, changing lifestyles of millennials, the impact of the pandemic on transport, work from home culture, the built environment considerations, egocentric anchoring in planni...

Darcy Molnar, Senior Program Coordinator at the Leopold-Bachmann Foundation and the Masters in Advanced Studies (MAS) in Water Resources Program Coordinator at ETH Zurich reflects on three major initiatives she has undertaken to foster better knowledge exchange on solving global crises, bridging global north and south and providing more opportunities for women in STEM. Having grown up in West Africa herself, we learn a bit about ho...