David with his office’s Lego collection. These include a Lego map of the energy it takes to harvest water from the atmosphere (link), 96 Lego spaceships (as of March 2023), and many boxes of legos, which are often used for research projects and in class.
Bio
David is a scientist, teacher, inventor, and entrepreneur. He is motivated by what he sees as the biggest problems facing humanity: the nexus of energy, water, and food. David is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University in Mechanical Engineering; his lab is in the Birck Nanotechnology Center. David completed his PhD at MIT with Professor John Lienhard, and did Postdoctoral work with Lienhard at MIT, Vecitis at Harvard (breifly), and with Menachem Elimelech and Jaehong Kim at Yale. Mentoring students is a priority for David, including for undergrad and graduate students. David is a coauthor of over 100 research contributions, including conference and journal papers, patents, and book chapters. David has been involved with advising, fundraising for, or cofounding several startup companies in the fields of water treatment, protection from pathogens, and food refrigeration.
CV pdf
Awards
(updated May 2024)
National or Global Academic Awards
• ASME’s Bergles-Rohsenow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer, 1/year, 2024
• UCOWR 2024 Early Career Award for Extension/Outreach/Engagement, 1/year, 2024
• Austin F. McCormack, Jr. Award (Young Professional), American Water Works Association, 1/year, 2024
• Membranes Young Investigator Award, Membranes Journal, 1 per 2 years, 2023
• MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35, 2020
• NAMS (North American Membrane Society) Young Membrane Scientist Award, 2020
• Universities Council on Water Resources Outstanding Dissertation Award in Science and Engineering, 2016,
• DOE SCGF Finalist, 2012 (PhD Fellowship)
University Academic Awards
• Seeds for Success Acorn Award (for fundraising with large proposals), Purdue University, 2023
• 2nd Best Paper Award, Purdue University Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Conference (as last author), 2022
• 2nd Best Paper Award, Purdue 202One Conference, (as last author), 2021
• Outstanding Achievement Award (Cornell, for highest GPA among 85 graduating MechE masters students), 2010
• Bart Conta Prize in Energy and the Environment (Cornell, best research or design project), 2010
Academic Presentation Awards
• 2022 1st Prize, Innovation Forum, International Desalination Association World Congress, Sydney Australia
• 2020 MIT A+B Applied Energy Symposium Best Poster Award, (co-author), Boston, MA (Remote)
• 2016 IDW Best Oral Presentation Award (International Desalination Workshop, Abu Dhabi, UAE)
• 2015 IDA Best Poster Award (International Desalination Association, biennial premier conference in field)
• 2015 IDA Best Presenter Award (as 2nd author) (San Diego, CA)
• ACE15 Conference 1st (coauthor) and 2nd Best Poster Presentation (10,000 attendees, Anaheim, CA)
• 2015 MIT Water Night Best Poster Honorable Mention
• Sibley Graduate Research Conference People’s Choice Award (Cornell), 2010
Engineering Competition Awards
• 2nd Place Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC) (NREL/DOE, International, as team mentor), $6k, 2024
• 3rd Place Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC) (NREL/DOE, International, as team mentor), 2023
• 1st Place Marine Energy Collegiate Competition (MECC) (NREL/DOE, International, as team mentor), 2021
• 1st Place Mechatronics Artificially Intelligent Battlebot Tournament (Cornell competition, ~150 students), 2009
Teaching/Mentoring Awards
• 2015 MIT Outstanding UROP Graduate Mentor (institute award, 1 given among 5,800 MIT graduate students)
• Hansen Masters of Engineering Fellowship (Cornell, teaching fellowship, $5,000), 2010
Service Awards
• 2023 Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Faculty Excellence Award Finalist (1 of 4 university-wide), Purdue
• 2020 Community Change Hero Recognition, Voices for Water Awards by J. B. Dondolo
• 2023 Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Faculty Excellence Award Finalist (1 of 4 university-wide), Purdue
Work Experience and Patents
Before graduate school, David worked as an engineer at Arup creating energy models, designing heating and cooling systems, and performing sustainability analysis. David has worked for or consulted for several startups, including EcoVent, Pareto Energy, AquaOne, was a cofounder and CTO of Coolify. Most recently, he has been the chief scientific advisor for Promethium Ltd., which was founded by lab member Xavier Morgan-Lange.
Hobbies
Swimming, cycling, lifting, games, traveling, getting overly enthusiastic about science museums:
Looking to get David a gift? See his wedding registry or for fun wish list.