ASCE has honored Mark R. Wiesner, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, F.ASCE, with the 2024 Simon W. Freese Environmental Engineering Award and Lecture for his extraordinary accomplishments in using fundamental scientific principles and current research findings to solve the most challenging environmental engineering problems.

Wiesner is one of the world’s foremost experts in environmental nanotechnology and membrane science in regards to microbial aspects of anaerobic waste treatment and drinking water treatment technologies. He has served/serves as the research advisor of 26 postdocs, 22 Ph.D. students, and 10 master’s degree students, and has published over 320 journal papers. He was recently elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Phi Beta Kappa, and is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions. These include the J.J. Barr Award of the National Association of Water Companies; National Science Foundation Research Initiation Award; Association of Environmental Engineering Professors AWWA invited lecturer; Rudolph Hering Medal; and the Charles Duncan Award for Scholarship and Teaching at Rice University.

He serves as the associate editor of Nanotoxicology, 2; associate editor of Environmental Engineering Science; is on the editorial board of Desalination and the International Journal of Green Nanotechnology: Materials Science and Engineering; and previously served as associate editor of ASCE’s Journal of Environmental Engineering.

The Simon W. Freese Environmental Engineering Award and Lecture is awarded to a distinguished environmental engineer whom the ASCE Executive Director will invite to deliver a lecture at a given meeting of the Society. 

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