Advisory board

Miriam Balaban

Miriam Balaban is a Professor, publisher, and editor, recognized for her work in science communication and desalination. She has founded international organizations (European Association of Science Editors; International Federation of Science Editors), conferences (International Conference of Scientific Editors) and journals (Desalination, editor 1966–2009; Desalination and Water Treatment, editor 2009-; Symbiosis 1985-) and has edited numerous journals, conference proceedings and books. She also publishes the Desalination Directory, an international online database.

Balaban was a research associate for science communication at Boston University from 1975 to 2008. She became secretary general of the organizing committee of the International Federation of Scientific Editors' Associations (IFSEA) in 1978, and the founder and first president of its successor organization, the International Federation of Science Editors (IFSE) in 1990. She was Professor and founding Dean of the School for Science Communication at the Mario Negri Sud Institute for Biomedical and Pharmacological Research in Italy from 1988 to 1992. She has been the secretary general of the European Desalination Society (EDS) since 1993.

Balaban was the recipient of numerous awards in recognition of her research contributions. Notable among these awards are Lifetime Achievement award from International Desalination Association in 2009, Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity (Stella della solidarietà italiana) from the President of Italy in 2012, Sidney Loeb Award from European Desalination Society in 2014. She is the honorary member of the European Membrane Society (EMS), and was named #7 of Top 25 Water Industry Leaders by Water & Wastewater International in 2015.

Menachem Elimelech

Menachem Elimelech is the Sterling Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. His research focuses on membrane-based technologies at the water-energy nexus, materials for next-generation desalination and water purification membranes, and environmental applications of nanomaterials. Professor Elimelech was the recipient of numerous awards in recognition of his research contributions. Notable among these awards are the 2005 Clarke Prize for excellence in water research; election to the US National Academy of Engineering in 2006; Eni Prize for ‘Protection of the Environment’ in 2015; and election to the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2017, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering in 2021, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2022.

Professor Elimelech has advised 49 PhD students and 45 postdoctoral researchers, many of whom hold leading positions in academia and industry. In recognition of his excellence in teaching and mentoring, he received the W.M. Keck Foundation Engineering Teaching Excellence Award in 1994, the Yale University Graduate Mentoring Award in 2004, and the Yale University Postdoctoral Mentoring Prize in 2012.

Martina Havenith-Newen

Martina Havenith has been a Professor of Physical Chemistry at Ruhr University Bochum since 1998. She founded 2012 the Cluster of Excellence "Ruhr Explores Solvation" (RESOLV), which overarches 50 groups at 5 institutions in the Ruhr-Area. She is the director of the Center of Molecular Spectroscopy and Simulation of Solvent Controlled Processes (ZEMOS). Since 2022, she has been the director of the newly founded Research Center Chemical Sciences and Sustainability of the University Alliance Ruhr, financed by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Her group has developed and pioneered new infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) laser technologies to explore fundamental questions in chemistry. Her research area is solvation science, which aims to provide a unifying framework for understanding and predicting solvent processes. She explores linear and nonlinear THz spectroscopic methods to understand and control solvent reactions. Furthermore, she has a focus on microsolvation and ultracold chemistry. She was selected as a Scout of the Henriette Herz Scouting Program in 2021.

Janet Gordon Hering

Janet Gordon Hering is the former Director of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology and Professor emeritus of biogeochemistry at ETH Zurich and EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). She works on the biogeochemical cycling of trace elements in water and the management of water infrastructure.

Hering was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2015 for contributions to understanding and practice of removal of inorganic contaminants from drinking water. She serves on the review board for Science Magazine. She was made an honorary fellow of IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in 2017 and a fellow of the Geochemical Society in 2018. She was awarded the Clarke Prize from the National Water Research Institute in 2018. She served as chairwoman of the ETH Zurich Women Professors forum.

How Yong Ng

How Yong Ng is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS) and a Changjiang Scholar Professor at the Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai. He was the Director of NUS Environmental Research Institute and the Director of the Sembcorp-NUS Corporate Laboratory. Professor Ng’s core research interest is in sustainable water management, focusing on biological treatment technologies, membrane bioreactor and microbial electrochemical sensor for water reuse and resource recovery. He has contributed to more than 450 publications in refereed international journals and conference papers. He invented the I2BioS – an integrated intelligent bio-sensor that provides real-time water toxicity and quality monitoring, which is currently being commercialised through EnvironSens Pte Ltd, a NUS spinoff company. He also serves as an Advisor to WaterROAM Pte Ltd, a NUS startup and a social enterprise that provides durable and affordable water filters designed for humanitarian use.

Professor Ng is a Fellow of the Academy of Engineering Singapore, a Fellow of the International Water Association (IWA) and a Distinguished Member of the American Council of Environmental Engineers and Scientists. He serves as an Associate Editor of Water Research and an Editor of the Water Reuse. He is also the Chair of of the Management Committee of the IWA Specialist Group on Membrane Technology and the immediate past president of the Environmental Engineering Society of Singapore. He has received many outstanding awards including the 2014 IWA Pacific Project Innovation Award, 2020 Institute of Engineering Singapore Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award, 2020 National University of Singapore Engineering Leadership Award, etc.

Agnes Schulze

Agnes Schulze is the Head of the department "Surfaces of Porous Membrane Filters" in Leibniz Institute of Surface Engineering (IOM). Her research focuses on Surface functionalization of polymer membranes by means of material development and irradiation-induced modification reactions, and implementation of functionalized polymer membranes in real applications.

She has received Saxon Transfer Award (2^nd price) for the transfer project with model character in 2021, Saxon Environmental Award 2019 for the environmental education project, IQ Innovation Award Central Germany 2018, Kurt-Schwabe Award 2018 of the Saxon Academy of Sciences, and Science and Technology Award 2016 of the IOM, etc.

Ruth Schwaiger

Ruth Schwaiger is the Chair of Materials in Energy Engineering (Forschungszentrum Jülich). She studied physics at the Technische Universität Wien in Vienna, Austria, conducted her doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, Germany, and obtained her doctoral degree in materials science from the University of Stuttgart in 2002. After her postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she joined the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe in Germany in 2004, then moved to a management consulting firm in 2007. She joined KIT in 2010.

Her research interests range from deformation mechanisms in metals and the mechanics of small-scale materials and structures to biomechanics and mechanical metamaterials. Her research aims to develop a mechanism-based understanding of deformation and failure of materials, and to determine design principles impacting improved strength and damage tolerance. She has authored or coauthored more than 60 peer-reviewed articles published in renowned international journals and given more than 30 invited presentations at international conferences.