Research and Innovation Community

The WEF Research and Innovation/Research and Innovation for Strengthening Engagement (RISE) Community will continue to support the core value of accelerating the adoption of innovative technology within the water industry, integrating utilities, academics, and consultants in the discussion.

The community will:

• Ensure communication between researchers working in academic and other research settings and coordinate input to WEF's efforts to understand and address priorities such as knowledge development and transfer, research funding, and so forth.
• Support and foster the participation of members from the academic and research communities in WEF's critical objective of driving innovation.
• Lead and support efforts to increase the participation of academics and other researchers in WEF programs.
• Provide leadership for and coordination of WEF's research-related conferences, including proposing events and meetings.

Chair
Xavier Fonoll-Almansa, 2025-2026
Email:  xavier.fonoll@utexas.edu

Vice Chair
Jeff Prevatt, 2025-2026
Email: Jeff.Prevatt@pima.gov

2nd Vice Chair
Brett Wagner, 2025-2026
Email: Brett.Wagner@aecom.com

Past Chair
Pusker Regmi, 2025-2026
Email:  Pusker.Regmi@stantec.com

Community Manager
Brittne Burns
Email: bburns@wef.com

View archived RIC Forum Webcasts and Research and Innovation Community Technical Resources.

Below are the latest RISE focus groups. The focus group topics were selected by the RISE community. Each focus group has a timeframe of about one year, after which the focus group members vote to continue the work for another year, or to sunset the group. If you would like to join any of the focus groups, or to join the RISE community, please email WEF Staff Manager listed above. 

Bioforms and Intensification

• Chair: Rudy Maltos, Metro Water Recovery - rmaltos@metrowaterrecovery.com 
• Vice Chair: Yewei Sun, PhD, PE, Hazen and Sawyer - YSun@hazenandsawyer.com

Digestion Intensification 

• Chair: Parisa Chegounian, Metro Vancouver - parisa.chegounian@metrovancouver.org 

Hydrothermal Liquefaction

• Chair: Michael Thorson, PNNL - michael.thorson@pnnl.gov 

Improvements in Pre-digestion Hydrolysis Processes

• Chair: Tom Nangle, Brown and Caldwell - tnangle@brwncald.com 
• Vice Chair: Rashi Gupta, Carollo - rgupta@carollo.com 

Mainstream Carbon Efficient Nitrogen Removal through PdNA

• Chair: Ahmed A Al-Omari, Brown and Caldwell - aalomari@brwncald.com

Resource Recovery Through FOG 

• Chair: Michael Simpson, LA Sanitation and Environment - michael.simpson@lacity.org 

Soft Sensors and Machine Learning Possibilities and Applications

• Chair: Aditya Ramamurthy, Kennedy Jenks - adityaramamurthy@kennedyjenks.com 
• Vice Chair: Jennifer Loudon, Intelligent Water Services - jloudon82@gmail.com 
• Vice Chair: Fenghua Yang, MMSD - fyang@mmsd.com