Jay Werber

Dr. Jay Werber is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto and the Principal Investigator of the Advanced Membranes (AM) Lab. The AM Lab’s goal is to design and synthesize membrane materials and processes with the aim of attaining breakthrough performance in molecular separations. Our main areas of focus are in water treatment, desalination, selective ion separations, and bioprocessing. Dr. Werber’s professional career has focused on several facets of separation science. After obtaining his B.S. from Washington University, he worked for four years conducting bioprocess development to produce and purify protein therapeutics at Genentech in San Francisco, CA. For his Ph.D. work at Yale University, Dr. Werber transitioned into molecular and environmental separations using membranes, with particular focus on reverse-osmosis desalination. In his postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Werber synthesized block copolymers, dispersible membranes for selective ion separations, and polymers with controlled pore size. Dr. Werber has been awarded the Young Membrane Scientist Award from the North American Membrane Society (2021), the Abel Wolman Fellowship from the American Water Works Association (2017), the C. Ellen Gonter Award from the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry (2017), and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2013).

• reverse osmosis
• membrane separations
• membrane materials
• functional polymer materials
• selective ion separations
• resource recovery
• membrane characterization