Gernjak, Wolfgang
ICREA Research Professor at Institut Català de Recerca de l'Aigua (ICRA).
Engineering Sciences
Short biography
2002 MSc in Analytical and Physical Chemistry from Vienna University of Technology, Austria. 2006 PhD in Land and Water Management from BOKU Vienna, Austria. 2000-2008 External Research Staff & post-doc, Plataforma Solar de Almería, Spain - Solar advanced oxidation & desalination. 2008-2014 Senior research fellow, The University of Queensland, Australia - Group leader: Drinking and Recycled Water. 2014-2015 Ramon & Cajal research fellow, Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) - Group leader: Water Supply and Advanced Treatment. 2015- ICREA Research Professor at Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) - Group leader: Water Supply and Advanced Treatment.
Research interests
I strife to to realize a vision for smart and water sensitive cities and societies by innovating the ways we treat reclaimed and drinking water.
My research focuses on technology innovation. Specifically, I research novel advanced oxidation and reduction as well as membrane filtration. PhD projects I currently supervise e.g. investigate vacuum UV driven water treatment, membrane distillation, catalytic ozonation, and plasma treatment. My research on water treatment technology is typically strongly connected to controlling water quality hazards to end-users, including trace organic contaminants, disinfection byproducts, and also pathogens.
I also continue to expand my research in aspects of integrated water management and industrial water treatment, for example in the projects INVEST, SUGGEREIX and iWAYS. Here, I combine my broad expert knowledge on technology and water quality to find tailored solutions working in multidisciplinary teams to solve real world problems.