Pedro J. J. Alvarez

Pedro J.J. Alvarez

Pedro J.J. Alvarez is the George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University, ^[1] Houston, United States, where he also serves as founding Director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center on Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) ^[2] and as Director of the Rice WaTER Institute. ^[3]

Alvarez also serves on the board of directors of the Houston Endowment Inc ^[4] ., which is a private foundation to improve quality of life for the residents of greater Houston. His research interests include environmental implications and applications of nanotechnology, bioremediation, fate and transport of toxic chemicals, water footprint of biofuels, water treatment and reuse, and antibiotic resistance control. Professor Alvarez received the B. Eng. Degree in Civil Engineering from McGill University and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan. He is the 2012 Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize ^[5] laureate for outstanding research in water science and technology, and also won the AAEES Grand Prize for Excellence in Environmental Engineering and Science.

Career

Alvarez has served on the EPA’s Science Advisory Board ^[6] and the National Science Foundation Engineering Directorate Advisory Committee, ^[7] and is an Executive Editor of Environmental Science and Technology.

Alvarez is an honorary professor at Nankai University, Zheijang University, and Chinese Academy of Sciences, and adjunct professor at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, Brazil. ^{[8] [9]}

Award and honors

• 2026 Awarded Benjamin Franklin Medal in Civil Engineering
• 2024 Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences ^[10]
• 2023 Outstanding Achievement Award, China Chemical Society ^[11]
• 2023 Thompson Reuter’s Highly Cited Researcher (consequently, since 2014)
• 2022 Distinguished Fellow of IETI (International Engineering and Technology Institute)
• 2022 Elected to Chinese Academy of Engineering, International Member ^[12]
• 2022 ACS Southwest Regional Partners in Progress & Prosperity (P3) Award (with M. Reynolds & M. Wong) ^[13]
• 2021 ASCE Simon Freese Award ^[14]
• 2021 NSF Engineering 40th Anniversary Distinguished Lecture
• 2020 ES Nano best papers: DOI: 10.1039/C9EN00143C ^[15] and DOI: 10.1039/C9EN00827F ^[16]
• 2020 ES&T best feature article: DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b05041 ^[17]
• 2020 Advisory Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
• 2019-now Board of Directors, Houston Endowment Inc.
• 2019 William Mong distinguished lecture, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Hong Kong
• 2018 Inducted into the National Academy of Engineering ^[18]
• 2018 Perry McCarty AEESP Founders’ Award for Outstanding Contributions to Env. Eng. Education & Practice ^[19]
• 2018 Brown and Caldwell Lifetime Achievement Award for Remediation ^[20]
• 2017 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) Distinguished Lecturer ^[21]

Best Papers

• 2014 Best paper awards ^[22]
• 2014 Most downloaded paper in water research ^[23]
• ES Nano Best Papers ^[24]
• ES Nano Best Papers ^[25]
• ES&T Best Feature Article ^[26]

References

1. "Pedro Alvarez". alvarez.rice.edu. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
2. "NSF".
3. "Rice WaTER Institute".
4. "Houston Endowment". 9 March 2022.
5. "Past Clarke Prize Laureates | National Water Research Institute". Mysite. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
6. EPA’s Science Advisory Board
7. National Science Foundation Engineering Directorate Advisory Committee
8. "Pedro J. J. Alvarez". rice.edu. Retrieved April 11, 2017.
9. "Pedro J. J. Alvarez" . Retrieved April 11, 2017.^{[ verification needed ]}
10. "American Academy of Arts and Sciences". 23 September 2025.
11. Alvarez, Pedro J. (November 27, 2023). "Chinese Chemical Society honors Alvarez with Outstanding Achievement Award". Rice University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Retrieved February 13, 2025.
12. "Alvarez, Mikos elected to Chinese Academy of Engineering". Rice News. November 19, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2025.
13. "2022 Award Winners". Southwest Regional Meeting. 2022. Retrieved February 13, 2025.
14. "Alvarez honored with 2021 ASCE Simon W. Freese Award". Rice Engineering. January 14, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2025.
15. Zhang, Tong; et al. (2019). "In situ remediation of subsurface contamination: Opportunities and challenges for nanotechnology and advanced materials". Environmental Science: Nano. 6 (5): 1283–1302. Bibcode:2019EnvSN...6.1283Z. doi:10.1039/C9EN00143C.
16. Yu, Pingfeng; Wang, Zijian; Marcos-Hernandez, Mariana; Zuo, Pengxiao; Zhang, Danning; Powell, Camilah; Pan, Aaron Y.; Villagrán, Dino; Wong, Michael S.; Alvarez, Pedro J. J. (2019). "Bottom-up biofilm eradication using bacteriophage-loaded magnetic nanocomposites: A computational and experimental study". Environmental Science: Nano. 6 (12): 3539–3550. doi:10.1039/C9EN00827F.^{[ non-primary source needed ]}
17. Loeb, Stephanie K.; Alvarez, Pedro J. J.; Brame, Jonathon A.; Cates, Ezra L.; Choi, Wonyong; Crittenden, John; Dionysiou, Dionysios D.; Li, Qilin; Li-Puma, Gianluca; Quan, Xie; Sedlak, David L.; David Waite, T.; Westerhoff, Paul; Kim, Jae-Hong (2019). "The Technology Horizon for Photocatalytic Water Treatment: Sunrise or Sunset?". Environmental Science & Technology. 53 (6): 2937–2947. Bibcode:2019EnST...53.2937L. doi:10.1021/acs.est.8b05041. PMID   30576114.^{[ non-primary source needed ]}
18. "Dr. Pedro Jose Alvarez". National Academy of Engineering. February 14, 2018. Retrieved February 19, 2025.
19. AEESP Foundation, Staff. "2017-18 AEESP Distinguished Lecturer". AEESP Foundation. Retrieved 20 February 2025.
20. Brown and Caldwell, Staff (9 April 2018). "Brown and Caldwell to honor Dr. Pedro Alvarez with Lifetime Achievement Award at Battelle Conference". Brown and Caldwell. Retrieved 20 February 2025.
21. AEESP Foundation, Staff. "2017-18 AEESP Distinguished Lecturer". AEESP Foundation. Retrieved 20 February 2025.
22. Logan, Bruce (2015). "The Best of the Best in 2014!". Environmental Science & Technology Letters. 2 (3): 52–53. Bibcode:2015EnSTL...2...52L. doi:10.1021/acs.estlett.5b00048.
23. Qu, Xiaolei; Alvarez, Pedro J.J.; Li, Qilin (2013). "Applications of nanotechnology in water and wastewater treatment". Water Research. 47 (12): 3931–3946. Bibcode:2013WatRe..47.3931Q. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2012.09.058. PMID   23571110.^{[ non-primary source needed ]}
24. Zhang, Tong; Lowry, Gregory V.; Capiro, Natalie L.; et al. (2019). "In situ remediation of subsurface contamination: opportunities and challenges for nanotechnology and advanced materials". Environmental Science: Nano. 6 (5): 1283–1302. Bibcode:2019EnvSN...6.1283Z. doi:10.1039/C9EN00143C.^{[ non-primary source needed ]}
25. Yu, Pingfeng; Wang, Zijian; Marcos-Hernandez, Mariana; et al. (2019). "Bottom-up biofilm eradication using bacteriophage-loaded magnetic nanocomposites: a computational and experimental study". Environmental Science: Nano. 6 (12): 3539–3550. doi:10.1039/C9EN00827F.^{[ non-primary source needed ]}
26. Loeb, Stephanie K.; Alvarez, Pedro J. J.; Brame, Jonathon A.; et al. (19 March 2019). "The Technology Horizon for Photocatalytic Water Treatment: Sunrise or Sunset?". Environmental Science & Technology. 53 (6): 2937–2947. Bibcode:2019EnST...53.2937L. doi:10.1021/acs.est.8b05041. PMID   30576114.^{[ non-primary source needed ]}