Spring 2024
By Mike Williams

“Clean water can save more lives than doctors,” says Pedro J. Alvarez, the director of Rice’s new Clean Water Technologies Entrepreneurship and Research Institute (WaTER). But the challenge of accessing clean water for all becomes more extreme by the year.

“The increasing demand for clean water exerted by a growing population, compounded by climate change and the complexity of pollution, represents a growing need for innovation,” Alvarez says. Currently, 43 million Americans lack access to municipal water, and 1 in 10 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water. The newly launched institute aims to address this and other complex water-related challenges.

The increasing demand for clean water exerted by a growing population, compounded by climate change and the complexity of pollution, represents a growing need for innovation.

The institute will focus on three key areas: public health, energy transitions and resilient infrastructure. Within those areas, researchers will tackle seven major challenges related to water: safe water quality for a growing population, distribution of water between humans and their environment, water disaster protection, water infrastructure (distribution and collection), enough food for all, water to produce energy, and solutions for water conflicts and a fair share for all.

Alvarez notes that one of the most important achievements in the last century was effective water treatment and sanitation, which increased the life expectancy of Americans from age 47 to 78. Further progress will require modular systems that produce clean water on demand while minimizing energy and chemical requirements.

Alvarez is uniquely positioned to lead the new institute. Since 2015, he has directed the multi-institutional
Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment Center — aka NEWT — funded by the National Science Foundation. NEWT has worked with academic and industry partners to develop affordable, mobile, modular, high-performance water treatment systems that are enabled by nanotechnology.

The WaTER Institute’s work will cut across natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and engineering and connect with Rice’s other research institutes. “Our collaborative structures and culture are a major competitive advantage,” Alvarez says.

Learn more at water.rice.edu.