Concrete is all around us, from buildings and sidewalks to bridges and roads, but graduate student Steven Palkovic sees it as more than just the most-used human-made material in the world; he sees it as an environmental problem. The production of concrete contributes up to 10 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide, and Palkovic hopes to reduce this environmental impact through his research of cement paste, the matrix of concrete materials that binds everything together.