Menachem Elimelech received his BS and MS degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his PhD in environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University. In his first appointment, Elimelech served as professor and vice chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering at UCLA. Upon coming to Yale in 1998, he founded Yale’s environmental engineering program. The program rose to international prominence and has been ranked in the top ten of the US News & World Report graduate engineering rankings for the past six years.

Elimelech’s research is in the general area of the water-energy nexus. Specifically, the research in his group involves membrane-based processes for energy-efficient desalination and wastewater reuse; advanced materials for next-generation environmental separation and water decontamination technologies; and environmental applications of nanomaterials.

Elimelech has received numerous awards in recognition of his research, including the Eni Award for Protection of the Environment in 2015 and the Clarke Prize for excellence in water research in 2005. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006, the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2017, and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering in 2021.

Elimelech has authored more than 480 refereed journal publications, including invited review articles in Science and Nature, and is a co-author of the book Particle Deposition and Aggregation (1995). He is a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in two categories: environment/ecology and chemistry.

In recognition of Elimelech’s excellence and dedication in teaching and mentoring, he received the W.M. Keck Foundation Engineering Teaching Excellence Award in 1994, the Yale University Graduate Mentoring Award in 2004, and the Yale University Postdoctoral Mentoring Prize in 2012.