Case Summary:

A Sri Lankan assistant project engineer in civil engineering had approached us for her National Interest Waiver application in 2022. She had a Ph.D. in civil engineering and her work was on the employment of microstructure characterization in cementitious systems and investigation of the chemical and physical mechanisms affecting concrete durability. Her work aimed to improve concrete durability, performance, and service life.

As we began digging into her credentials and research work, we found that it was indeed of great importance because it provides critical new insight into the causes of cracking and other breakdowns in concrete structures, such as bridges and concrete paved roads, and identifies the best ways of mitigating these damages.

In order to maintain the global supply chain and prevent road failures from negatively impacting the transportation of goods, it is crucial to continue identifying ways of improving the strength of construction materials used to make roads, like concrete. And our client’s research both helps identify these causes of cracking and other failures in concrete and provides useful strategies for mitigating them, making it ideal for improving transportation systems. So it wasn’t difficult for her to obtain letters of recommendation from other experts who recognized her work as essential for the U.S. One such researcher said:

“The modeling tool [the client] developed for this project evaluates concrete mixtures before they are applied as repairs, making it an excellent predictor of slab efficiency. Since the U.S. relies on concrete for massive construction work, cost, and durability are two of the most important factors in the material designation. The U.S. sources much of its concrete and cement materials from foreign entities, so [the client’s] findings on optimizing slab repair techniques mean that that nation is better able to reliably enforce the strength of concrete regardless of its origin. Considering all these factors, it is certainly within the interests of the United States that [the client] continue her essential research into concrete technology.”

Additionally, her 8 years of work have yielded important academic output. She has published 8 peer-reviewed journal articles (5 of them first-authored), 5 conference articles, and 2 book chapters, which have been cited a total of 80 times according to Google Scholar, thereby demonstrating that these publications are widely recognized and relied upon in the field of civil engineering. Along with this, she has completed at least 8 reviews for various publications around the world.

Her work has in fact been supported with funding from the Florida Department of Transportation which was evidently due to the fact that her proposed endeavor has broad implications for the United States. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimates that there are around 2.8 million miles of paved roads in the United States as of 2020, which are relied upon by millions of Americans every day for their daily commute and for the transportation of goods.

So, proving that the continuation of her work would benefit the U.S., was not very difficult due to her excellent credentials. Our team made sure to highlight them and once we had filed the petition, we waited for the results. Soon in the month of September 2022, we had her approval in hand. We were joyous to have helped her through and we wish her the best in future endeavors.