NWRI Fellowship Program
The NWRI Fellowship program awards funds to graduate students who are conducting water research in the United States. To be eligible, students must be accepted and enrolled in an US-based graduate program. Fellowships are underwritten by the American Membrane Technology Association, the Southern California Salinity Coalition, and NWRI. To read Fellowship reports, follow the link in each student's profile.
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NWRI Member Agency Fellowship
This fellowship funds research that supports NWRI's mission of developing and enhancing drinking water supplies and water resources.
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NWRI/SCSC Fellowship
The NWRI-Southern California Salinity Coalition (SCSC) Fellowship supports research that addresses the critical need to remove or reduce salts from water supplies and to preserve water resources in Southern California. Such research includes institutional and regulatory issues, economics of reducing salinity, regional and watershed planning solutions, and public education, outreach, and awareness. Visit the SCSC website for more information.
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NWRI/AMTA Fellowship for Membrane Technology
The NWRI/AMTA Fellowship supports research to advance membrane technologies in the water, wastewater, or water reuse industries. Research must be consistent with the American Membrane Technology Association's vision of "Solving water supply and quality issues through the widespread application of membrane technology." The fellowship assists two graduate students for two years.
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NWRI/BioLargo, Inc., Fellowship
This fellowship funded research about developing or enhancing water supplies through the technical and scientific application of advanced water and wastewater treatment. (This fellowship is no longer offered.)
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NWRI/WateReuse Fellowship
The NWRI-WateReuse Fellowship funds research related to the advancement of recycled water treatment technology and policy, for either potable or non-potable reuse of water. (This fellowship is no longer offered.)
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Fellowship Recipients (2018-2022)
NWRI Member Agency Fellow
Alyssa Schubert, University of Michigan
Schubert's 2022 project investigated the drivers of decision-making in distributed drinking water systems and their impact on decision outcomes.
NWRI/AMTA Fellow Kian Lopez
University of Colorado, Boulder
Lopez's 2022 research, titled "Electrochemical characterization and oxidation methods to mitigate failure mechanisms in pressure-driven membrane distillation for applications in water reuse" sets out to establish a foundation for using novel membrane processes for water reuse.
NWRI Member Agency Fellow
Thomas Morales, San Diego State University
Morales' 2021 project is titled "Persistence and removal of emerging chemical in sunlight-exposed wastewater effluent."
NWRI/AMTA Fellow Jose Diaz
University of Michigan
Diaz's 2021 project was titled "Ion sorption and transport in novel highly charged and tunable ion exchange membranes contacted with non-ideal electrolyte solutions."
NWRI/BioLargo, Inc., Fellow
Lorianne Shultz, University of Central Florida
Schultz's 2020 research focused on synthesizing heterogenous catalysts that are resistant to chlorine poisoning for the remediation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in water.
NWRI Member Agency Fellow
Wei-Cheng (Wayne) Hung, UCLA
Hung's research focused on the prevalence, persistence, and effects of heavy metal co-selection on antibiotic resistance in the environment.
NWRI/AMTA Fellow Yousuf Bootwala,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Bootawala's research focused on evaluating and improving the transport and selectivity of 2D titanium carbide membranes for applications in water treatment as well as for resource recovery.
NWRI/WateReuse Fellow
Hannah Greenwald, UC Berkeley
Greenwald's research focused on how transitioning to direct potable reuse will impact microorganisms in drinking water distribution systems.
NWRI/BioLargo, Inc. Fellow
Katherine Dowdell, University of Michigan
Dowdell's Fall 2019 report on her research, Bacterial Opportunistic Pathogens in Drinking Water Treatment Systems and the Influence of Disinfectants, discusses decreasing preferential selection for opportunistic pathogens during water treatment.
NWRI/BioLargo, Inc. Fellow
Jian-Feng Zhou,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Zhou's research report focuses on environmental nanotechnology, In-Pipe Electroporation Disinfection Cell Enabling High-Efficiency Secondary Disinfection for Drinking Water.
NWRI • AMTA Fellow
Michael Geitner, Pennsylvania State University
Geitner was researching Bioinspired Hypochlorite-Resistant Reverse Osmosis Membranes, to develop reverse-osmosis membranes that can withstand cleaning with hypochlorite.
NWRI Member Agency Fellow Daniel Leontieff, Texas State University
Leontieff's 2022 research explored new technologies for water treatment and water reuse in his project titled, "Direct Online Monitoring of Direct Potable Reuse Systems."
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NWRI/AMTA Fellow Aubrey Quigley
University of Texas at Austin
Quigley's 2022 work addressed new cation exchange membranes for use in bipolar electrodialysis for the selective recovery of lithium, and is titled "Lithium brine purification and electrochemical conversion via selective bipolar membrane electrodialysis."
NWRI Member Agency Fellow Yusi Li
Arizona State University
Li's 2021 project is titled "Management of inland desalination brackish water concentrates with pervaporation."
NWRI/AMTA Fellow Weiliang Bai
University of Texas at Austin
Bai's 2021 project is titled "Setting up a comprehensive Omics platform for detecting biofouling in reverse osmosis seawater desalination plants."
NWRI/SCSC Fellow Xinyu Tang
University of California, Riverside
Tang's 2021 project addresed new treatment methods for brine produced during reverse osmosis to recover more water and other usable resources.
NWRI Member Agency Fellow
Yanghua Duan, UC Berkeley
Duan’s research examined the feasibility of incorporating electrochemical advanced oxidation into dry well systems to treat and recharge stormwater runoff.
NWRI/AMTA Fellow
Stephanie Ribet, Northwestern University
Ribet worked on tailoring membranes to recover toxins including nutrients and heavy metals. Her work focused on understanding the structure of membranes to optimize their performance.
NWRI/SCSC Fellow
Mackenzie Anderson, UCLA
Anderson's research focused on materials for chemically tolerant and selective membranes as well as coatings for the reduction of mineral scale on desalination membranes.
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NWRI/BioLargo, Inc. Fellow
Megyn Rugh, University of California, Los Angeles
Rugh's report, titled Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Stormwater: Implications for Hotspot Identification, describes how biofilters can affect antibiotic-resistant genes in the environment.
NWRI/BioLargo, Inc. Fellow
Michael Rose, Johns Hopkins University
Rose's Spring 2019 report is titled Electrophilic Aromatic Iodination in Chloraminated Water: A kinetic investigation of a chemical mechanism relevant to iodinated disinfection byproduct formation.
NWRI • AMTA Fellow
Cassandra Porter, Yale University
Porter's report, Ion-Rejecting Membranes with Polyelectrolytic Layers Produced through Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization, studies the process of producing specialized reverse-osmosis membranes.
SCSC Fellow Amninder Singh,
University of California, Riverside
Singh's report, Using Smart Irrigation Technologies to Optimize Recycled Water Application for Turfgrass Irrigation to Conserve Water, Maintain Turf Quality, and Sustain Soil Health, explores smart irrigation controllers for irrigation best practices using recycled water.