Prof. Urs von Gunten left on retirement
© EPFL / Eawag
A world-renowned expert in water treatment, Urs von Gunten, professor at EPFL and Eawag, has been researching oxidation and ozonation for 30 years with a view to reducing micropollutants and sustainably improving the quality of drinking water and wastewater.
After his PhD in Chemistry at ETHZ in 1989, Urs von Gunten joined Eawag, where he became a senior group leader and was department head of the Departments of Chemistry and Water Resources and Drinking Water. Since 2011, he has a joint appointment between Eawag and EPFL where he is a full professor.
He is an internationally recognized expert in water quality and treatment with a strong focus on oxidation processes in water and wastewater, including disinfection, micropollutant abatement, and formation of transformation products and disinfection byproducts.
In the last two decades he was strongly involved in the application of ozone for enhanced municipal wastewater treatment for micropollutant abatement, from laboratory experiments to full-scale implementation. He collaborates regularly with Swiss practitioners from the water and wastewater sector, e.g., he was the head of the two large trans-disciplinary projects “Water Supply for the 21st Century (2004-2008)” and “Regional Water Supply Basel-Country (2013-2016)”.