Anderson-Clarke Center / Moody Lois Theater Technical Sessions

Sponsors Plenary Speakers Committee Chairs & Speakers Programme Photos

LET 2026 Programme Details

The IWA Leading Edge Conference on Water and Wastewater Technologies is designed to be the place for sharing the latest insights into how pioneering science, technological innovation and leading practices will shape the major transformation in water management that is underway.

Interactive Event Timeline

Workshop Day Overview

12:00 — 19:00
REGISTRATION OPEN
13:00 — 15:00
WORKSHOP SESSION I

Workshop 1: Innovative desalination and brine management technologies for produced water
Ralph S. O'Connor Building | Classroom 130
Chair: Eric Willman (Rice University) | Co-chair: Tamim Popalzai (Brown and Caldwell)
Speakers: Peter Fyfe, Tiezheng Tong, Ngai Yin Yip, Menachem Elimelech, Alex McDonald, Micheal Grossman, Julie Nahrgang

Workshop 2: Hybrid water & wastewater infrastructure: Distributed solutions complementing centralized systems
Ralph S. O'Connor Building | Classroom 132
Chair: Michael Skovgaard Jensen (GRUNDFOS) | Co-chair: Brad Gaffney (newterra)
Speakers: Romina Ferrada Rubio, Adam Sommers, Chris Harris

Workshop 3: Gasification projects, pitfalls, bear traps, dust devils, and opportunities
Ralph S. O'Connor Building | Classroom 131
Chair: Charles Foster (IQ Energy Inc.) | Co-chair: Nicholas Foster (IQ Energy Inc.)
Speakers: Charles Foster, Nicholas Foster

15:00 — 15:30
BREAK
15:30 — 17:30
WORKSHOP SESSION II

Workshop 4: Artificial Intelligence (AI) for water and wastewater systems
Ralph S. O'Connor Building | Classroom 130
Chair: Yongsheng Chen (Georgian Institute of Technology) | Co-chair: Tiezheng Tong (Arizona State University)
Speakers: Junhong Chen, Sunny Jiang, Jason Ren, Nirupam Aich, Haoran Wei

Workshop 5: Advanced materials and processes for pollution mitigation, disinfection, and resource recovery
Ralph S. O'Connor Building | Classroom 132
Chair: Wen Zhang (New Jersey Institute of Technology) | Co-chairs: Lea Winter, Damilola Daramola, Wensi Chen, Shiqiang Zou
Speakers: Michael Wong, Botte Gerri, Sharma Virender Kumar, Paul Westerhoff

Workshop 6: NET-ZERO targets and direct process emissions: measuring, estimating and mitigating N₂O from wastewater treatment
Ralph S. O'Connor Building | Classroom 131
Chairs: Ana Soares (Cranfield University), Morten Rebsdorf (Aarhus Vand) | Co-chair: Amanda Lake (Jacobs)
Speakers: Ana Soares, Morten Rebsdorf, Amanda Lake, Jason Ren, Mark Van Loosdrecht

17:30 — 19:30
WELCOME RECEPTION (Sponsored by Grundfos)
Collect badges and delegate bags.
Ralph S. O'Connor Building | 510 Conference Room and Terrace

Plenary Keynote Sessions

Location: Brockman Hall for Opera
08:00 — 18:00
REGISTRATION OPEN
08:45 – 09:30
WELCOME ADDRESS
Pedro J.J. Alvares (Director, Rice WaTER Institute), Reginald DesRoches (President, Rice University), and Randy Macchi (Director, Houston Public Works, Texas)
09:30 — 10:15
PLENARY KEYNOTE SESSION / DISCUSSION
Tracy Caldwell Dyson (NASA, USA)
Research, recovery, recycling, and resilience – Water on the International Space Station
10:15 — 10:45
MORNING BREAK
10:45 — 11:30
PLENARY KEYNOTE SESSION / DISCUSSION
Mark van Loosdrecht (Delft, NL)
Wastewater to materials
11:30 — 12:00
PLENARY KEYNOTE SESSION / DISCUSSION
Menachem Elimelech (Rice, USA)
Membrane technologies for desalination and water reuse: Where do we stand?
12:15 — 14:00
LUNCH
14:00 — 14:45
PLENARY KEYNOTE SESSION / DISCUSSION
Amanda Lake (Jacobs, UK)
Greenhouse Gas Emissions mitigation from WWTPs
14:45 — 15:30
PLENARY KEYNOTE SESSION / DISCUSSION
Amy Childress (USC, USA)
Integrated treatment of alternative water sources: Enabling safe and resilient potable supply
15:30 — 16:00
AFTERNOON BREAK
16:00 – 16:45
PLENARY KEYNOTE SESSION / DISCUSSION
Christopher Gasson (Global Water Intelligence, UK)
The future of desalination
17:00 – 19:00
POSTER SESSION
Poster Presenters Setup & Presentation
Anderson-Clarke Center Commons

Technical Sessions Overview

08:30 — 18:00 | Registration Open & Coffee at Anderson-Clarke Center Commons

Morning Tracks (09:00 - 12:15)

Drinking Water Track (Session 1)
Advances in Membrane Technologies and Multifunctional Hybrid Systems
Moody Center for the Arts | Lois Chiles Theatre
Session Chairs: Mikel Duke (AUS) and Shihong Lin (USA)
09:00 — Keynote Speaker
Performance optimization of ozone/ceramic membrane systems for virus and organic contaminant removal
Shane Snyder, USA
09:30 — Low-cost image-based monitoring to assess biofouling in high-pressure membranes
Alexander Mitranescu, Germany
09:45 — Fate transformation of low-micrometer microplastics under pressure-driven membrane filtration
Zhijie Wang, USA
10:00 — Discussion (15 minutes)
10:15 — Break (30 minutes)
10:45 — Keynote Speaker
Direct filtration with nanofiltration: 10 years of innovation in water treatment with hollow fibre membranes
Henk Koops, NL
11:15 — Investigating modified Ludzack-Ettinger membrane bioreactor (MLE-MBR) Systems in potable water reuse schemes with seawater and urban runoff augmentation
Harmita Golwala, USA
11:30 — Modern water purification: Advanced solutions for efficiency, sustainability, and reliability
Tony Powell, Canada
11:45 — Discussion (15 minutes) & Poster Pitch Session 1
12:00 — Effects of a polyamide layer on electrochemical properties of electric conducting membranes and their implication for scaling control
Eliana Cadena, USA
12:05 — Elucidating The Mechanisms Of Catalytic Water Dissociation In Bipolar Membranes: The Role Of Nano-confinement
Yuxuan Huang, USA
Wastewater Track (Session 2)
Ultra-low nutrient discharges, and intensification in a constrained future
Anderson-Clarke Center | Hudspeth Auditorium
Session Chairs: Mark van Loosdrecht (NL) and Michelle Young (USA)
09:00 — Keynote Speaker
Advancing process intensification and resilience with MABR Technology: Insights from pilot and full-scale applications
Prachi Salekar, USA
09:30 — SBR and densified sludge for enhanced settleability and nutrient removal
Jared Alder, USA
09:45 — From advanced primary to advanced secondary: A three-year demonstration project for the next generation of intensified wastewater advanced treatment processes
Onder Caliskaner, USA
10:00 — Discussion (15 minutes)
10:15 — Break (30 minutes)
10:45 — Keynote Speaker
Pushing the limits: R&D needs for practical ultra-low nutrient treatment
Tanja Rauch-Williams, USA
11:15 — Integrating partial denitrification – anammox and biological selection-driven densification
Yewei Sun, USA
11:30 — High-performance phosphate removal from WWTP effluents using the BioPhree® technology
Pim de Jager, NL
11:45 — Poster Pitch Session 2
12:00 — Real-time off-gas testing to diagnose nitrogen pathways in intensified ultra-low biological nutrient removal
Michelle Young, USA
12:05 — High-purity FePO4 production from wastewater sludge for LFP batteries: Process development and system-level sustainability assessment
Xuan Wang, USA, China
12:10 — From data to decision: AI-enabled digitalization and mechanistic autonomy for intelligent biological nutrient removal
Xingyu Wang, USA
12:15 — 13:45
LUNCH Moody Center for the Arts

Afternoon Tracks (13:45 - 17:00)

Drinking Water Track (Session 3)
Desalination, Decreasing Energy Requirements & Brine Management
Moody Center for the Arts | Lois Chiles Theatre
Session Chairs: Menachem Elimelech (USA) and Tiezheng Tong (USA)
13:45 — Keynote Speaker
From waste to resource: Building self-sustaining desalination through circular chemical production
Tomer Efrat, Israel
14:15 — Technical evaluation of a new alternative, electro-coagulation (EC) with ceramic ultrafiltration, for seawater reverse osmosis desalination pre-treatment
Enyu Liu, Singapore
14:30 — Translating mechanistic insight into enhanced silica removal from saline brine via electrocoagulation
Tyler Malkoske, USA
14:45 — Discussion (15 minutes)
15:00 — Break (30 minutes)
15:30 — Keynote Speaker
Membrane brine concentration: state of the art, opportunities and challenges
Eric Hoek, USA
16:00 — Alma de Mar. Brine mining real application in gourmet sodium chloride production and commercialization
Juan Arévalo, Spain
16:15 — Advanced strategies for brine and concentrate management in for saline water treatment in municipal and industrial applications
Vasu Veerapaneni, USA
16:30 — Discussion (15 minutes) & Poster Pitch Session 1
16:45 — A novel approach for direct lithium extraction from alkali metal cations in brine mixtures using thermally switchable solvents
Ngai Yin Yip, USA
16:50 — Commercial nanofiltration membranes for partial desalting of brackish water sources for agricultural irrigation
Jing-Hua Tzeng, USA
16:55 — Hygroscopicity-driven spontaneous sustainable lithium extraction
Hongxu Chen, USA
Wastewater Track (Session 4)
Modular and Decentralised Treatment
Anderson-Clarke Center | Hudspeth Auditorium
Session Chairs: Ana Soares (UK) and Marc Deshusses (USA)
13:45 — Keynote Speaker
Scaling decentralized water systems through collaboration and governance reform
Paula Kehoe, USA
14:15 — (Semi-) decentralised wastewater treatment for water reuse
Inka Schirm, Germany
14:30 — AI-guided sensors for real-time decentralized wastewater monitoring and process optimization
Yuankai Huang, USA
14:45 — Discussion (15 minutes)
15:00 — Break (30 minutes)
15:30 — Keynote Speaker
Reinvented toilets: 15 years of development, key insights, and future directions
Marc Deshusses, USA
16:00 — Transforming municipal WWTPs into photobiorefineries: demonstration of ANPHORA® technology for nutrient recovery
Victor Monsalvo, Spain
16:15 — The potential of thermomechanical and thermochemical processes to enable sustainable household sanitation
Zixuan Wang, USA
16:30 — Poster Pitch Session 2
16:45 — Autonomous modular greywater treatment and reuse system to enable reliable decentralized operation
Amro Hassanein, USA
16:50 — Optimizing modular off-grid sanitation: Quantitative sustainable design of a decentralized reinvented toilet and comparative assessment of hybrid operation
Rishabh Puri, USA
16:55 — Modular Two-zone Biofilters For Iron-mediated Nitrogen Removal In Onsite Wastewater Treatment
Zhiyue Wang, USA
17:00 – 19:00
POSTER SESSION Anderson-Clarke Center Commons

Technical Sessions & Closing Ceremonies

08:30 — 17:00 | Registration Open & Coffee at Anderson-Clarke Center Commons

Morning Tracks (09:00 - 12:15)

Drinking Water Track (Session 5)
PFAS Mineralization Technologies for Water, Wastewater, Sludge and Brine Treatment
Moody Center for the Arts | Lois Chiles Theatre
Session Chairs: Mike Wong (USA) and Scott Grieco (USA)
09:00 — Keynote Speaker
Highlights from the applied research program at Orange County Water District: PFAS measurement, data management, and treatment
Megan Plumlee, United States of America
09:30 — PFAS destruction in foamate and IX-generated still bottoms
Daniel Cho, United States of America
09:45 — Holistic life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the impact of biosolids thermal processes for mitigating PFAS
Leah Pifer, United States of America
10:00 — Discussion (15 minutes)
10:15 — Break (30 minutes)
10:45 — Keynote Speaker
Going beyond destruction and removal efficiency: Assessing the effectiveness of PFAS mineralisation technologies
Detlef Knappe, United States of America
11:15 — Performance verification of PFAS destruction and mineralization for adaptive PFAS management
Dora Chiang, United States of America
11:30 — On-site PFAS destruction using next-generation chemical-free photocatalysts
Tony Powell, Canada
11:45 — Discussion & Poster Pitch Session 1
12:00 — Develop synergetic novel macrocycle-based sorbents with thermal destruction for enhanced PFAS removal
Yilang Sun, United States of America
12:05 — Novel application of Cu-Al layered double hydroxide to the concentration of PFAS for the post-treatment
Bonjun Ku, Republic of Korea
12:10 — Best practices for experimental design, testing, and reporting of aqueous PFAS-degrading technologies
Jan-Max Arana Juve, Denmark
Wastewater Track (Session 6)
Developments in digitalisation, automation and artificial intelligence
Anderson-Clarke Center | Hudspeth Auditorium
Session Chairs: Qilin Li (USA) and Delph Mak (Singapore, USA)
09:00 — Keynote Speaker
Implementing Agentic AI agents for operational excellence
Amber Boone, United States of America
09:30 — From theory to practice: Designing and operating struvite recovery systems with predictive analytics
Rishabh Puri, United States of America
09:45 — Development of machine learning models for PFAS detection and classification in aquatic systems
Seung-Ju Choi, Republic of Korea
10:00 — Discussion (15 minutes)
10:15 — Break (30 minutes)
10:45 — Keynote Speaker
What do we mean by AI in water systems?
Lina Sela, United States of America
11:15 — Structure activity relationship of organics degradation from the perspective of machine learning
Yongbing Xie, China
11:30 — A prototype ontology and data management platform for water treatment systems
Gabe Fierro, United States of America
11:45 — Discussion & Poster Pitch Session 2
12:00 — The applications of artificial intelligence to selective membrane separation for water purification
Tong Tiezheng, United States of America
12:05 — Knowledge-infused language models for water and sustainability domain
Junjie Zhu, United States of America
12:10 — Coupling mechanistic and machine learning models for energy-centric optimization and GHG reduction
Delph Mak, United States of America, Singapore
12:15 — 13:45
LUNCH Moody Center for the Arts

Afternoon Tracks (13:45 - 17:00)

Drinking Water Track (Session 7)
Closing the water cycle towards direct potable reuse
Moody Center for the Arts | Lois Chiles Theatre
Session Chairs: Shane Trussel (USA) and Jörg E. Drewes (Germany)
13:45 — Keynote Speaker
El Paso's path to the first direct-to-distribution DPR project in the US: Milestones and context
Eva Steinle-Darling, United States of America
14:15 — The true cost of the DPR treatment train
Aleks Pisarenko, United States of America
14:30 — Implementing RED-based UV/AOP control strategy at San Diego's North City Pure Water facility
Uwe Hübner, Germany
14:45 — Discussion (15 minutes)
15:00 — Break (30 minutes)
15:30 — Keynote Speaker
Full-scale direct potable reuse from municipal WWTP effluent in Flanders, Belgium
Bart de Gusseme, Belgium
16:00 — Comparing IPR vs DPR: Testing at the city of San Diego's CASSF
Mitchel Bartolo, United States of America
16:15 — Atmospheric water harvesting: Towards 1 Billion m3 of installed capacity
Paul Westerhoff, United States of America
16:30 — Discussion & Poster Pitch Session 1
16:45 — Far-UVC LED photodegradation of steroid estrogens in water
Rania Elsebai, Canada
16:50 — Thinking abnormally: A new way to look at RO data
Kyle Thompson, United States of America
16:55 — Nano-enabled water reuse (NEWR): Catalytic filtration with immobilized MnO2 for trace organic contaminants removal
Mohammad Shehryaar Khan, Germany
Wastewater Track (Session 8)
Advanced solids and wastewater management for energy-neutral treatment plants
Anderson-Clarke Center | Hudspeth Auditorium
Session Chairs: Richard Lancaster (UK) and Ajie Wang (China)
13:45 — Keynote Speaker
Organic and PFAS waste destruction using GA's industrial supercritical water oxidation (iSCWO)
John Follin, United States of America
14:15 — CAMELLIA®: Advanced anaerobic digestion for sludge hygienisation and energy integration
Victor Monsalvo, Spain
14:30 — Innovative thickening technologies driving energy-neutral WRRFs
Onder Caliskaner, United States of America
14:45 — Discussion (15 minutes)
15:00 — Break (30 minutes)
15:30 — Keynote Speaker
Waterwhelm – Transforming industrial water recycling and reuse
Charles Hine, United Kingdom
16:00 — Employing methanotrophs for phosphorus recovery as polyphosphate from waste streams while mitigating GHG
YanFei Tang, United States of America
16:15 — Advanced anaerobic treatment to achieve energy self-sufficiency in urban wastewater treatment
Maria Concetta Tomei, Italy
16:30 — Discussion & Poster Pitch Session 2
16:45 — Halophilic bioprocessing for wastewater valorization to bioplastics
Zhiwu Wang, United States of America
16:50 — Dual-membrane distillation for simultaneous recovery of volatile fatty acids and water from wastewater
Kuichang Zuo, China
16:55 — Membrane-free electrosynthesis of ammonia and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from waste streams
Jiahe Zhang, United States of America
17:00
Travel to Anderson-Clarke Center Hudspeth Auditorium
17:15 — 17:30
CLOSING CEREMONY Anderson-Clarke Center | Hudspeth Auditorium
19:00
GALA DINNER Rice Memorial Center
Complimentary for all delegates participating.

Technical Tours Overview

Please arrive at shuttle loading area at 8:00am sharp at the Anderson-Clarke Center.
08:00 — 12:00
TECHNICAL TOURS

NASA Space Center Private Tram Tour

Join us for an exclusive private tour aboard the NASA Tram Tour at Space Center Houston. This behind-the-scenes experience takes your group onto the NASA Johnson Space Center campus to explore historic Mission Control, astronaut training facilities and Rocket Park. Led by expert guides, you'll gain insider insight into NASA's bold missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. After the tour, you will be provided time for self-exploration in the museum exhibits and gift shop before returning to campus—making this inspiring field trip both seamless and unforgettable.

Time: 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM
Price: $50 | PAX: 34

Grundfos US Headquarters Technical Tour: Innovating the Future of Water

Join us at the Grundfos US Headquarters in Brookshire, Texas, and experience how we turn our purpose, pioneering solutions to the world's water and climate challenges, into reality. This technical tour offers a behind-the-scenes look at our advanced manufacturing environment, where digitalisation, automation, and sustainability are integrated across production and assembly. Explore our dosing and water treatment line, where customised solutions are built to meet real-world needs, and discover our Engineered-to-Order capabilities designed for complex applications. From robotics and forklift-free operations to state-of-the-art testing, see how Grundfos combines innovation and responsibility to shape the future of water.

Time: 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Price: $50 | PAX: 30

LET 2026 Conference Focus Themes

Joint Drinking Water and Wastewater

  • PFAS Mineralisation Technologies for Drinking Water, Wastewater, Sludge and Brine Treatment
  • Developments in Digitalisation, Automation and Artificial Intelligence

Drinking Water

  • Advances in Membrane Technologies and Multifunctional Hybrid Systems
  • Desalination, Decreasing Energy Requirements & Brine Management
  • Closing the Water Cycle Towards Direct Potable Reuse

Wastewater

  • Pushing the Limits: Ultra-low Nutrient Discharges, and Intensification in a Constrained Future
  • Modular and Decentralised Treatment
  • Advanced Solids and Wastewater Management for Energy-Neutral Treatment Plants

Key Dates

Workshop proposal deadline: 2 March 2026

Event starts: 1 June 2026

Event ends: 5 June 2026

Call for content – poster submissions still open!

Download Brochure Download Paper Template Submit Abstract

Call for content – workshop proposals

Submit Workshop Proposal Download Workshop Template

Poster Presentations

View Poster Presentations