Water Experts

Want to be listed as a Water Expert?

To secure your spot, please email foundation@wqrf.org with:

A few sentences about your primary research focus
Details on any recent water research projects
A link to your professional details online, if available
An image or headshot that best represents you

Contact WQRF

Meet the Water Experts

Dr. Zhi (George) Zhou

Associate Professor
Civil Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering

Dr. Zhou's research focuses on environmental microbiology and the application of biotechnologies in engineering systems.

Dr. Zhou recently finished a study on emerging contaminant removal and microbial growth in membrane filtration and activated carbon point-of-use devices that was funded by
the Water Quality Research Foundation.

Click here to learn more about Dr. Zhou's research

Dr. Emily Kumpel

Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Kumpel has over a decade of experience researching water supply, quality, access and equity.

In partnership with the Water Quality Research Foundation, Dr. Kumpel recently studied point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) devices in comparison to improvements to existing centralized systems for Safe Drinking Water Act compliance using a triple bottom line analysis.

Click here to learn more
about Dr. Kumpel's research

Dr. Kelly Reynolds

Professor, Department Chair of Community, Environment and Policy, Director of ESRAC

Since 1990, Dr. Reynolds has worked as a researcher and public health educator in environmental science, specializing in water quality, food safety, and disease transmission.

Her extensive experience in those research areas includes her role as a Principal Investigator of the Water Quality Research Foundation, numerous other research projects, and the publication of hundreds of journal articles, book chapters, and professional reports.

Click here to learn more
about Dr. Reynolds' research

Corona Environmental Consulting

Water. Data. Policy. Knowledge out of Darkness.

Throughout Corona’s involvement in data collection, management, and assessment projects, the team has always kept focus on the development of intentional objectives to answer key questions regarding drinking water quality and the subsequent impact on public health.
Data analyses have been implemented with the purpose of best answering these questions, and the dissemination of results and conclusions has been done with the intention to inform the drinking water community with clear and useful information to support future decisions.

Click here to learn more
about Corona Environmental

AHAM

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) is the single voice providing the home appliance industry with leadership, advocacy and a forum for action in public policy, standards and business decisions.

In a joint venture, WQRF and AHAM used independent testing to verify that counterfeit water filters were dangerous. The data has been presented to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and is being used to raise awareness with consumers.

Click here to learn more
about AHAM's work on "Filter It Out"

Water Quality Association

The Water Quality Association (WQA) is a not-for-profit association for the residential commercial, and industrial water treatment industry. WQA represents more than 2,500 member companies around the globe.

The Water Quality Research Foundation (WQRF) was formed in 1952 to serve on behalf of the WQA as a universally recognized, independent research organization.

Click here to learn more
about WQA

MMSD

For more than 90 years, Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) has worked to protect public health, the environment and local waters through innovation, sustainability and resource recovery.

MMSD and WQRF's research identified that optimization of water softeners can cut chlorides discharged by more than a quarter, and replacement of older systems with newer, efficiency-rated ones can lead to a reduction of nearly half.

Click here to learn more
about MMSD

Dr. Marcia Silva

Adjunct Professor, School of Freshwater Sciences

Dr. Silva has > 20 years of industrial and academic experience in understanding the mechanisms of association of microbial and chemical pollutants to particles, microbial biofilms, and fate and transport of pollutants in waterways.

Recently, Dr. Silva was funded by WQRF to gauge the American public’s knowledge of emerging contaminants in drinking water.

Click here to learn more
about Dr. Silva's research

Dr. Jun Kim

Assistant Professor, Environmental Engineering

Dr. Jun Kim is currently an assistant professor at Florida Polytechnic University. Previously, Dr. Kim held professional leadership roles in the water industry, while he worked for global companies for 12 years.

Kim’s research over the last 15 years focused on advanced water treatment processes for residential drinking water, seawater desalination, municipal wastewater, and produced waters from industries.

Click here to learn more
about Dr. Kim's research

Dr. Marc Verhougstraete

Assistant Professor: Community, Environment & Policy

Dr. Verhougstraete's research focuses on water quality, public health, and environmental justice. He quantifies microbial exposures, models health risks, and defines treatment interventions. Projects address national, state, and local drinking water issues, including a Water Quality Research Foundation (WQRF) project on POU/POE for Safe Drinking Water Act compliance. Another project with Arizona's ADEQ examined toxicology information to inform the application of maximum contaminant levels in source waters.

Click here to learn more about
Dr. Verhougstraete's research

The Water Experts List