Dr Isabel Escobar of the University of Toledo, Ohio, USA, has been appointed by the International Desalination Association (IDA) to succeed Dr Jim Birkett as editor-in-chief of the IDA Journal of Desalination & Water Reuse.
Dr Escobar is based at the University of Toledo, where she is professor of chemical and environmental engineering and assistant dean for research development and outreach for the College of Engineering. She holds a PhD, MS and BSc in Environmental Engineering from the University of Central Florida.
Well-known for her research on membrane separation, Dr Escobar has published over 50 research papers and presented at over 100 national and international conferences. She has been lead principal investigator on 25 federally-funded grants and holds one patent for a breakthrough anti-biofouling feed spacer material. In 2011, she received the FRI/John G Kunesh Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Separations Division, awarded for significant discoveries, important research or outstanding service to the separations community.
Dr Escobar wrote two articles for the May/June 2009 issue of D&WR on Low-biofouling polypropylene feedspacers for reverse osmosis and Desalination using forward osmosis with nanofiltration membranes (as co-author).
“In water-scarce regions, two sources of water are normally available: sewage and seawater,” says Dr Escobar. “In the last decade, the reclamation of effluents has developed rapidly as an alternative to seawater desalination for irrigation and indirect potable water reuse.”
“However, much work is still needed to minimize waste, recover byproducts and minimize energy consumption. The IDA Journal of Desalination & Water Reuse will focus on these ever-growing technologies, their improvements and advances,” she promises.