Water Innovation Symposium highlights advances in water research
Annual event fosters connections between faculty, students and industry professionals
The Center for Water Innovation (CWI) at Washington University in St. Louis hosted its second annual Water Innovation Symposium Sept. 16. CWI’s director Zhen (Jason) He, the Laura & William Jens Professor, and Kimberly Parker, associate professor and associate director, both in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering, welcomed more than 80 attendees to the meeting.
“In the symposium’s second year, we nearly doubled participation,” He said. “The impact of the event continues to grow as we establish vital connections between our participants from academia and industry.”
Symposium attendees included distinguished McKelvey Engineering alumnus Bruce Rittmann, for whom a named lecture was established in 2023; industry professionals; and Washington University faculty and students. Although distinguished McKelvey Engineering alumnus Lilia Abron was unable to attend this year’s event, the lecture established in her name continued.
The speaker for the Rittmann Lecture was David Sedlak, the Plato Malozemoff Professor of Environmental Engineering at University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Berkeley Water Center. The speaker for the Abron Lecture was Janet Hering, director emerita of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science & Technology and professor emerita at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich and Lausanne. Both are members of the National Academy of Engineering.
As part of the symposium, WashU graduate students engaged in a flash talk competition. The students presented their findings related to safe drinking water, sustainable wastewater management, water and agriculture, climate change and other topics. Winners Eric Connors, a student in the Department of Biology, and Xicheng He and Kaichao Yang, both students in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering, were selected by a panel of judges.
The event concluded with a CWI partner forum which featured the center partners and initiated a discussion focused on ways WashU and the partners can advance water research. Representatives from Missouri American Water, Brewer Science, Buckman, KimHEC and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville participated.
“As we look toward future symposiums, we hope to expand our scope,” He noted. “The plan is to invite state environmental agencies to join us for discussion of how we can best address water-related social and economic challenges and create business opportunities for the water economic ecosystem.”
