Gernjak, Wolfgang
Research Scientist, Ramon and Cajal Fellow, Leader: Water Supply and Advanced Treatment 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 aim to innovate the ways we treat water applied to water reuse, desalination, and drinking water to realize a vision for smart and water sensitive cities and societies. Specifically, I am an expert on numerous novel advanced oxidation processes or membrane filtration such as reverse osmosis but have also broad knowledge on many other processes. The focus of my research is on technology innovation. For example, I research novel membrane processes such as forward osmosis or innovative lighting solutions for UV driven advanced oxidation processes (utilizing vacuum UV or LEDs). A key aspect is that those technologies are then assessed in the context of complete treatment trains or more holistically, as buliding block of solutions for cities. 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.