Dr. Jishan Wu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering in the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science at Lehigh University. His research focuses on advanced membrane materials and separation processes for sustainable water treatment, desalination, water reuse, brine concentration, and resource recovery. His group develops next-generation membrane platforms to address pressing challenges at the water–energy–materials nexus, including hypersaline brine management, critical mineral recovery, emerging contaminant removal, ultrapure water production, and advanced molecular separations.
Dr. Wu’s work bridges molecular-scale membrane design, materials characterization, transport phenomena, and system-level separation performance. His research has been published in leading journals, including Science Advances, Nature Communications, Environmental Science & Technology, Environmental Science & Technology Letters, Journal of Membrane Science, Desalination, and npj Clean Water. His work has been recognized with multiple national and international honors, including the Young Researcher Best Oral Presentation Award, the North American Membrane Society Student Fellowship Award, the National Water Research Institute–Southern California Salinity Coalition Fellowship, and the American Membrane Technology Association/U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Fellowship. Beyond research, Dr. Wu serves on the Early Career Editorial Board of Desalination and the Editorial Board of npj Clean Water.
Before joining Lehigh, Dr. Wu was a postdoctoral fellow at Rice University working with Prof. Menachem Elimelech, where he developed membrane and porous-material platforms for desalination, brine valorization, water reuse, and critical mineral recovery. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a minor in Chemical Engineering, from the University of California, Los Angeles, under the supervision of Prof. Eric M. V. Hoek. His doctoral and postdoctoral research advanced the fundamental understanding and practical design of polymeric membranes for high-pressure desalination and resource recovery.
Areas of Research
Membrane separations; desalination and water reuse; brine concentration and valorization; critical mineral recovery; resource recovery; data-driven membrane design; AI validation of separation technologies; environmental materials.
Selected Publications
1. Wu, J. et al. Resilient High-Temperature Reverse Osmosis Desalination Membranes, Science Advances, (2026): aea1505.
2. Wu, J. et al. Ultrahigh pressure compaction-resistant thin film crosslinked composite reverse osmosis membranes. Nature Communications, (2025): 8165.
3. Wu, J. et al. Role of Transmembrane Pressure and Water Flux in Reverse Osmosis Composite Membrane Compaction and Performance. Environmental Science & Technology, (2025): 59, 17, 8856–8866
4. Wu, J. et al. Embossing-Free Permeate Carrier for Ultrahigh Pressure Reverse Osmosis, Environmental Science & Technology, (2025): 59, 48, 26261–26270
5. Wu, J. et al. Non-destructive In-operando Imaging of Thin Film Composite Membrane Compaction Enhanced by AI-based Segmentation. Environmental Science & Technology Letters, (2025): 1069-1074.
6. Wu, J. Hoek, E.M.V. Current Opportunities and Challenges in Membrane-Based Brine Management, Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering, (2025): 101079.
7. Wu, J. et al. Polyamide Reverse Osmosis Membrane Compaction and Relaxation: Mechanisms and Implications for Desalination Performance, Journal of Membrane Science, (2024): 122893.
8. Wu, J. et al. Polymeric Membrane Sample Preparation for Scanning Electronic Microscopic Characterization. Journal of Membrane Science Letters, (2024): 100073.
9. Wu, J. et al. Reverse Osmosis Membrane Compaction and Embossing at Ultrahigh Pressure Operation. Desalination, 537 (2022), 115875
10. Wu, J. et al. Sustainable Desalination and Water Reuse. Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2021
11. Wu, J. et al. A Critical Review of Point-of-Use Drinking Water Treatment in the United States. npj Clean Water, (2021): 4, 40.
