“Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate” 

Professor David Sedlak, Ph.D., NAE 

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering 

University of California at Berkeley 

ABSTRACT 

As the cumulative effects of population pressure, increasing wealth and  

a changing climate intersect with water policies and investments that  

fail to consider impacts on human health and the natural environment,  

the world will experience more severe water crises in the coming  

decades. To provide transformative solutions that are likely to be  

adopted, research and development is needed that employs the latest  

technologies, embraces systems-level thinking and considers the way in  

which new technologies diffuse into practice. The successful  

development and deployment of such approaches will require  

collaborations among scientists, engineers and policy experts to connect  

fundamental research with actions that will alter the way that the world  

obtains, treats and uses water. The speaker will illustrate this approach  

by using drawing upon examples from among the six global water crises 

and emerging technologies that have the potential to solve them.

Dr. David Sedlak is the Plato Malozemoff Distinguished Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental  Engineering and the Director of the Berkeley Water Center at UC Berkeley. Dr. Sedlak is a member of the US  National Academy of Engineering, chair of its Water Science & Technology Board and recipient of numerous  awards including the Paul Busch Award for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research and the Clarke Prize  for Excellence in Water Research. He is also the author of “Water 4.0: The Past, Present and Future of the  World’s Most Vital Resource” and “Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate”.