Even concrete is not as hard as it looks. Sea water, salt on icy roads, and indirectly even carbon dioxide from the air can corrode the steel of the reinforcing bars and so threaten the strength and integrity of a bridge pier, jetty, or viaduct. Dessi Koleva, a chemical engineer from Bulgaria, spent her doctoral research at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences devising a method for the cathodic protection of steel rebars. The method is cheaper and also has fewer side effects on the microstructure of concrete.