Celebrating 50 Years of the Environmental Division - Yoram Cohen Interview

Distinguished Professor

University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Yoram Cohen received his B.A.Sc. (1975), and M.A.Sc. (1977) in Chemical Engineering, from the University of Toronto, and Ph.D. (1981)from the University of Delaware. He is a Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where he has been a member of the Faculty since 1981. He is on the Faculty of the Institute of the Environmental and Sustainability, a Faculty Affiliate of the California NanoSystems Institute, UCLA Luskin Scholar at the Center for Innovations (School of Public Affairs), Associate Faculty with the UCLA Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, and he is Adjunct Professor at Ben-Gurion University (Department of Desalination & Water Treatment, Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research). He was a Visiting Professor at the Technion (1987-1988), at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain 1994), and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Victoria University (Australia 2006). Dr. Cohen is a recognized expert and technology innovator in water treatment and desalination, membrane separations, environmental impact assessment, toxicity modeling, machine learning and nanoinformatics. His research contributed to the development and deployment of advanced flexible, self-adaptive and energy optimal water desalination systems, new membranes and monitoring of membrane fouling, mineral scaling and membrane integrity. His contributed to environmental protection efforts to promote water reuse, develop clean drinking water supplies for disadvantaged communities, and reduce risks from exposure to chemical contaminants.