Eric Hoek, faculty director of the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge and professor of civil and environmental engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has been chosen by the National Water Research Institute as the 2022 Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize laureate — which is considered one of the highest honors in water research, science, technology or policy in the United States. Hoek is also a member of UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, as well as a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 

His most noteworthy contributions include his Nanomaterials and Membrane Technology Research Lab, which focuses on ways to produce clean water and energy more efficiently through advances in membrane technology and nanomaterials. Hoek is also a part of a multi-institutional team that was awarded a three-year, $3.3 million grant from the National Alliance for Water Innovation to develop reverse osmosis membranes that can effectively treat high-salinity industrial wastewater. Experts estimate this tech breakthrough will significantly reduce the energy consumption and the costs of recovering usable water from high-salinity brines by up to 50%.

Read more about Hoek and the 2022 Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize laureate at UCLA Newsroom.

Image Source: Daniel Leibowitz