Faculty

Cristian Picioreanu, Ph.D.

Professor

Research Interests: Numerical modeling, Biofilms, Membrane engineering, Bioreactor engineering, Multi-scale simulations, Water Treatment

Johannes Vrouwenvelder, Ph.D.

Professor | Center Director

Research Interests: Biofouling, Water Treatment, Biofilms, Transport and distribution, Biological stability / regrowth, Microbial water quality, Membrane fouling, Biofilm monitors, On-line sensors

Matthew McCabe, Ph.D.

Professor | Director, Climate and Livability Initiative (CLI)

Research Interests: Remote sensing, Water security, Climate impacts, Precision agriculture, Unmanned aerial vehicles

Kim Choon NG, Ph.D.

​​​Professor

Research Interests: Adsorption Desalination (AD), Thermal desalination,, Energy efficiency analysis with Standard Primary Energy, Direct Spray Evaporation and Condensation (DCSEC), Atmospheric Water Harvester (AWH), Solar energy applications, Sunlight (CPV) to formic acid (liquid hydrogen carrier), Indirect Evaporative Chiller (IEC), Coated-coil Mechanical Vapor Chiller (CCMVC) Dehumidifier

Noreddine Ghaffour, Ph.D.

Professor

Research Interests: Forward Osmosis, Sustainable desalination, Membrane distillation, Hybrid systems, Membrane fouling and mitigation, Membrane cleaning, Renewable Energy

Geert-Jan Witkamp, Ph.D.

​Professor

Research Interests: Water, Crystallization, Thermodynamics, Supercritical carbon dioxide, Natural deep eutectic solvents, Green solvents

Pascal Saikaly, Ph.D.

Professor​

Research Interests: Electromicrobiology, Microbial Electrochemistry, Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process, Aerobic Granular Sludge, water reuse, Resource recovery

Peiying Hong, Ph.D.

​Associate Professor

Research Interests: Emerging microbial contaminants, water quality, wastewater multibarrier treatment technologies, water reuse, anaerobic processes

Himanshu Mishra, Ph.D.

​​​​​​​​​​​Associate Professor

Research Interests: Superhydrophobic insects and plants, Bio-inspired technologies for precision agriculture, coatings and membranes, Interfacial chemistries, Nanoconfined liquids

Gary Amy, Ph.D.

​Emeritus Professor

Research Interests: ​Membrane technology, Innovative adsorbents, Ozone/advanced oxidation, River bank filtration and soil aquifer treatment, Natural organic matter and disinfection by-products, Organic and inorganic micropollutants

Research Scientists

Andreia Farinha, Ph.D.

Research scientist

Research Interests: Green solvents, Water Treatment, Trace metal, Liquid membranes, ​NADES

Krishnaveni Venkidusamy, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Environmental biotechnological applications in Biofouling, Bioremediation, Biodegradation, Electromicrobiology, Biocorrosion, Petroleum & Reservoir Microbiology, Molecular biology & Microbial ecology, Bioenergy

Yanghui Xiong, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Membrane fouling

M Kum Ja, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Optimization chiller, Evaporative cooling, Dessicant dehumidification, Microwave dehumidification, Membrane dehumidification

Sarah Kerdi, Ph.D.

​Research Scientist

Research Interests: Membrane filtration processes, Water desalination, Fouling, Spacer design, Material sciences, Catalysis, Chemical formulation

Doskhan Ybyraiymkul, Ph.D.

Research scientist

Research Interests: CFD modeling, Water desalination, Thermal management systems, Adsorption Desalination, Cooling, IEC

Peng Zhang, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interests: SFA/AFM, Nano liquid, Instrument development, Spectroscopy, Biomimic, Nano fabrication

Alla Alpatova, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interests: ​Membrane separation processes, Water desalination, Catalytically active membranes, Advanced oxidation processes

Bastiaan Blankert, Ph.D.

​Research Scientist

Research Interests: Process control, Modeling, Membrane processes, Optimization, System design, Pilot scale research, Membrane fouling, Membrane integrity

Muhammad Burhan, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interests: ​Solar Energy Systems, Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV), Water Electrolysis, Ozone Water Treatment, Wastewater Electrolytic Treatment, Hydrogen Energy

Nadia Farhat, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Water Treatment, Desalination, reverse osmosis, Biofouling, non-destructive imaging

Kasper Johansen, Ph.D.

​Research Scientist

Research Interests: Remote sensing, Agriculture, Satellite, High spatial resolution, Geographic object-based image analysis, UAV1, Airborne, Multi-spectral, LiDAR, Thermal, Hyper-spectral, Image processing

Luca Fortunato, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interests: Membrane fouling, In-situ monitoring, Water Treatment, Membrane distillation, Desalination

Krishna Katuri, Ph.D.

Senior Research Scientist

Research Interests: Electro-microbiology, Microbial electrochemical systems, Electrochemical membrane bioreactors, Molecular microbial ecology, Bioreactors (aerobic & anaerobic bioprocesses) design for waste treatment and fermentation processes

Graciela Gonzalez-Gil, Ph.D.

​Research Scientist

Research Interests: Microbial ecology, Biofilms architecture and ecology, Drinking water, Environmental biotechnology

Sofiane Soukane, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Research Interests: ​Process design and scale-up, Multi-scale modeling and simulation

Research Staff

Hongbo Zhang

Lab Assistant

Raymund Gesalta

Senior Engineer (consultant)

Elzain Mohamed

Field Assistant

Amin Haider

Research Technician

Research Interests: Biochar production, SandX production

Mohammed Al-Amri

Lab Technician

Research Interests: CAD designing, Rapid prototyping, Scientific glassblowing

Najeh Kharbatia

Staff Scientist

Research Interests: Gas chromatography, Liquid chromatography, Metabolomics, Lipidomics, Trace Analysis, Environmental analysis, Mass spectrometry, Electron Ionization, Collision induced dissociation

Mohamed El Shaer

Lab Specialist

Dan Hu

Lab Technician

Wei Yang

Research assistant

Research Interests: Fermentation, Food waste

Samir K. M. Al Mashharawi

​Research Specialist

Research Interests: Hydrology, Evapotranspiration, Agricultural monitoring, Crop health, Irrigation efficiency

Imene El Tall

Laboratory Manager

Research Interests: Microscopy, Sterility testing, Molecular biology

Adnan Qamar, Ph.D.

System Modelling and Data Specialist​

Research Interests: ​Computational Fluid Dynamics, Machine learning, Data Analytics and High Performance Computing (HPC)

Yogesh Singh, Ph.D.

​Research Specialist

Research Interests: ​Water quality (analysis, treatment and monitoring)seawater desalination (SWRO/MD), Pretreatment, Membrane fouling/ scaling

Chengyan Zhao

​Research Technician

Oliver López, Ph.D.

Research Specialist

Research Interests: Remote sensing, Hydrology, Water resources

Postdoctoral Fellows

Claudia L. Sánchez Huerta

Postdoctoral fellow

Research Interests: ​Membrane bioreactor, Biological wastewater treatments, biotechnology,, Organic micro-pollutants, water reuse

Sarvajith Manjunath, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral fellow

Research Interests: Microbial biotechnology, Aerobic and anaerobic bioprocesses, Aerobic Granular Sludge, Wastewater treatment technologies, Microbial ecology of engineered systems

Fernan David Martinez Jimenez , Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Mathematical modeling, Simulation process, Biotechnological science, Mechanistic and not-mechanistic models, Python, Matlab, Julia, C, Java

Muhammad Subkhi Sadullah, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral fellow

Research Interests: Droplets, Liquid-infused surfaces, Wetting, Lattice Boltzmann, Oil-water separation

Filipa Simoes, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral fellow

Research Interests: RO membrane, Scaling, LA-ICP-MS, Analytical chemistry

Jamal Elfarkh, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral fellow

Research Interests: Crop model, Evapotranspiration, Water stress, Water use efficiency, Remote sensing

Marcel El Hajj, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Synthetic aperture radar data, Optical data, LiDAR, Soil moisture, Biomass, Crop mapping, Crop parameters, Crop modeling

Hari Ananda Rao, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Electromicrobiology, Microbial ecology, Microbial interactions, Waste to resources, Biocorrosion

Kennedy Odokonyero, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Plant biology/ecology, Plant microbial interaction, Material engineering, Soil science, Irrigation management

Shuo Zhang, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Anaerobic membrane reactor, Industrial wastewater, water reuse, Pathogen, Emerging contaminants, Membrane fouling

Mohammed Obaid Awad, Ph.D.

​Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Seawater desalination, Wastewater Treatment1, Membrane fabrication, Electrospinning, Forward Osmosis, Ultrafiltration

Harun Elcik, Ph.D.

​Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Membrane distillation, Membrane fouling, Water and Wastewater Treatment, Renewable Energy, Microalgae

Muhammad Nawaz, Ph.D.

​Postdoctoral fellow

Research Interests: ​Forward osmosis membrane filtration, Biological treatment of wastewater, Water purification, Fate of chemical contaminants in water treatment

Yong Jin, Ph.D.

​Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests: Condensation, Heat transfer, Desaliantion, Materials, CFD

Dario Rangel Shaw, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral fellow

Research Interests: ​Microbial ecology of wastewater, ​Environmental microbiology, Bioremediation, Molecular biology techniques

Ph.D. Students

Ana Rousseva

MS/Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Eutectic Freeze Crystallization, Trace element analysis, Urban mining

Victor Manuel Torres Serrano

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Innovative adsorbents, Water desalination, Phosphorus recovery, Inorganic crystallization, Reactor design and modeling

Ting Li

M.S./Ph.D. Student

Jiaqi Zheng

MS/ Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Machine learning, Image analysis, Artificial intelligence

Dario Scilla

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Satellite, UAV remote sensing

Maksim Sysoev

Ph.D. Student

Yevhen Myshkevych

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: ​Wastewater treatment, Virus detection

Jorge Luis Rodríguez Galvis

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Remote sensing, Software engineering, Information science, Environmental engineering, Computer engineering, Agricultural engineering

Natalia Franco Clavijo

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Biofouling, Scaling, Reverse osmosis membrane, Seawater desalination

Carlos Bibiano Guadarrama

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Wastewater treatments, Microbial ecology, Multi-Omics, Annamox, Bioelectrochemical systems

Lucia Ruiz Haddad

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Aerobic Granular Sludge, Metagenomics, Metatranscriptomics, Microbial ecology

Olena Samonina

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Microbial ecology, Electromicrobiology, Microbial wastewater treatment, Aerobic Granular Sludge, Biofilms, Bioreactors

Santiago Cespedes-Zuluaga

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Mathematical modeling, Processes simulation, Multi-scale simulations, Thermodynamics, Membrane engineering

Bob Vernooij

Ph.D. student

Research Interests: Biodiversity, Conservation, Marine biology, Forest ecology, Halobates

Fatimah Almulhim

Ph.D. student

Research Interests: Metaproteomics, Metabolomics, Wastewater treatments

Muzzamil Ahmad Eatoo

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Electrosprays, Surfaces and interfaces, Nanoelectrochemistry, 2D materials

Batool Albar

MS/ Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Bio-char

Fabio Camargo

MS/Ph.D. student

Research Interests: Agriculture, Satellite, UAV remote sensing

Yuming Jin

​​​MS/Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Solar energy system, Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV), Sustainable cooling technologies, Desalination technologies

Julian-Tobon-Gonzalez

Ph.D. student

Research Interests: Wastewater treatment technologies, Solid waste treatment technologies, Nutrient  recovery, Bioreactors, Bioprocesses, Modelling

Yinfeng Xu

Ph.D. student

Research Interests: SFA/AFM, Instrument development, Fluid Mechanics, Nano liquid

Yasmeen Nadreen

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Biological stability of water, Biofouling, Desalination, Membrane processes, Bottled water

Mohammed Alomari

Ph.D. Student

Victor Angulo Morales

Ph.D. student

Research Interests: Remote sensing, UAVs​​​, Hyperspectral imaging, Precision agriculture

Ahmed Almalki

Ph.D. student

Research Interests: Hydrology, Water budget, Remote sensing, Water carbon cycle, Carbon footprint, Hydrological modeling, Water resources management, Water resources engineering

Areej Alwahas

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Remote sensing, Image processing, Cloud computing, Landcover classification, Agricultural monitoring, Air quality

Omar Andrés López Camargo

MS/Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Remote sensing, Computer vision, AI, Oceanography, Agriculture

Mohammed Bader

MS/Ph.D. Student

Nischal Maharjan

MS/Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Intermolecular and surface forces, Bio and soft matter physics, Wetting phenomena

Laura Milena Pulido Beltran

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Water Treatment, Desalination, Biofouling, Membrane systems, Membrane cleaning

Yeong Na

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Environmental engineering, ​Biological wastewater treatment, ​Environmental microbiology

Lamya Al Fuhaid

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: ​NADES, Physical chemistry, Biological processes, biotechnology,, Biochemistry

Sarah Almahfoodh

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Membrane distillation, Water desalination

Sankara Arunachalam

Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Biomimetics, Microfabrication, Wetting, Membrane distillation, Fluid dynamics, Surface science

Kees Theo Huisman

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Membrane processes, Fouling control, Biofouling, Non-destructive characterization

Rodrigo Jimenez-Sandoval

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Water Treatment, Bioelectrochemical systems, Biofuels, Bioproducts

Julie Sanchez Medina

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Environmental biotechnology, Microbial ecology, Resource recovery, ​Wastewater treatment

Changzhi Wang

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: Bioinformatics, Computational biology, Metagenomics

Bothayna Algashgari

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: ​Environmental microbiology, Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, ​Wastewater treatment

Nayara Vivian Huve Musskopf

​M.S./ Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: ​Interfaces, Superhydrophobicity, Surface wettability, Materials characterization

Ratna Putri

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: ​Environmental microbiology, Bioinformatics, Microbial indicators, Biocorrosion, Microbial enhanced oil recovery

Luigi Ranieri

​Ph.D. Student

Research Interests: ​Wastewater treatment, Membrane fouling, In-situ monitoring, Seawater pre-treatment for desalination

Administrative Staff

Vityria Vongsisca

Admin and Operations Analyst

Baraâ  Zouari

Outreach and Engagement Specialist

Victor Otoadese

​​Center Manager

Cecilia Balagtas

​Communications Coordinator

Cairong Zheng

​Administrative Assistant

Industry Specialists

Muhammad Altaf, Ph.D.

Process and Controls Lead

Achraf Boussira

​Research Assistant