Westerhoff receives WRF Innovator Award

The Water Research Foundation Honors Outstanding Water Leaders

(Denver, CO) 6/17/24 – The Water Research Foundation (WRF) announced last week that it awarded its 2024 Research Innovation Award to Dr. Paul Westerhoff and its 2024 Subscriber Impact Awards to Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and Great Lakes Water Authority.

WRF’s Subscriber Impact Award honors subscribing utilities that have made notable improvements to their treatment, delivery, and/or management processes through the successful application of WRF research. The Research Innovation Award recognizes researchers who have made significant contributions to advancing the science of water through research sponsored by WRF.

Paul Westerhoff, PhD, is a Regents Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University. Dr. Westerhoff has been an innovative force in water since the early stages of his career, receiving the Paul L. Busch Award from WRF in 2006 for his research on the removal of engineered nanomaterials during wastewater treatment, which led to the development of new analytical methods. Dr. Westerhoff has led 14 WRF projects as Principal Investigator and has served on Project Advisory Committees for nine WRF projects.

“WRF has been integral to my career journey, extending from funding my PhD under Dr. Gary Amy in the early 1990s to ongoing projects today with fabulous collaborators,” said Dr. Westerhoff. “These projects spanned a wealth of topics, including oxidation, emerging pollutants, disinfection by-products, and natural organic matter. Through its Unsolicited funding program, WRF has facilitated high-risk endeavors that allowed me and many others to push the frontiers of drinking water research.”