Rich Earth Institute

Moderator: Nadav Malin (President, Honorary AIA, LEED Fellow)
Nadav Malin is a passionate facilitator, leading workshops and retreats to help organizations of all types find alignment, inspiration, and leadership in pursuit of their goals. He convenes peer networks of architecture firm Sustainable Design Leaders, Sustainable Construction Leaders, and others. He facilitates gatherings and consults to USGBC, AIA, large corporations, government agencies, and architecture firms. And he helps project teams with charrette facilitation and design process support to achieve optimal outcomes.

Treavor Boyer (Arizona State University, USA)
Treavor Boyer is an Associate Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment (SSEBE) at Arizona State University (ASU), and is Program Chair of the Environmental Engineering undergraduate degree program. His research interests span water quality and treatment with numerous projects on innovative applications of ion exchange technology such as PFAS removal from impacted water and nutrient recovery from source separated urine. Dr. Boyer is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award entitled “Sustainable Urine Processes through Integration of Education and Research (SUPER).” Dr. Boyer earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in environmental engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his B.S. degree in chemical engineering from the University of Florida. Dr. Boyer was previously an Assistant Professor and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences at the University of Florida.

Harald Gruendl (EOOS NEXT, Austria)
Dr. Harald Gruendl is designer and design theorist. He is managing director of the social design enterprise EOOS NEXT which is currently working for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on several sanitation projects which are piloted in South Africa and India. With a grant of the BMGF the urine separation technology “Urine Trap” is currently industrialized with several international partners.

Will Tarpeh (Stanford University, USA)
William Tarpeh is an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University.  He leads a research group focused on designing and evaluating novel separations to recover valuable products from wastewaters. Will completed his B.S. in chemical engineering at Stanford, his M.S. and Ph.D. in environmental engineering at UC Berkeley, and postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan in environmental engineering. Will has recently been honored as an Environmental Science & Technology Early Career Scientist, Forbes’ “30 Under 30” 2019 Science List, Gulf Research Program Early Career Fellowship, and Chemical and Engineering News Talented 12.

Laura Allen (Greywater Action, USA)
Laura Allen is a founding member of Greywater Action, a nonprofit educational organization, and has spent the past 20 years exploring low-tech sustainable water solutions. She authored The Water-Wise Home: How to Conserve and Reuse Water in Your Home and Landscape and Greywater, Green Landscape. Laura leads classes and workshops on rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse, and composting toilets, and works on policies and codes for water reuse systems in the west. She is on the technical advisory committee for the International Association of Mechanical and Plumbing Officials’ (IAPMO) Water Efficiency Standard (We-STAND) and is the board president of the California Onsite Water Association. 

Pauline Souza (WRNS Studio, USA)
Pauline is an architect with 36 years of experience in the industry, Partner, K-12 sector lead and the Director of Sustainability at WRNS Studio. Some notable projects include the first Net Zero certified Library – Stevens library; a Top Ten COTE project – the Janet Durgin Guild and Commons, and the Microsoft Campus in Silicon Valley using LBC Water Petal and WELL.

Aurea Heusser (Eawag – Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Switzerland)
Aurea Heusser is a PhD student at ETH Zurich in the department of environmental engineering. Her research takes place at Eawag in the department of process engineering where she is working on the treatment of separately collected urine in order to produce a fertilizer.

Dan Marks (Wastewater engineer, USA)
Dan is a registered engineer in Vermont and Maine practicing wastewater engineering design with 12 years of experience. He is also a member of Rich Earth’s board of directors.