Razi Epzstein | Gtep Grand Technion Energy Program

Assistant Prof. Razi Epzstein

Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering

GTEP new recruit Assistant Prof. Razi Epzstein chose to do his PhD at Technion in the lab of Prof. Michal Green because he was excited about the research he could pursue there.

While doing his post-doctoral research at Yale he had the opportunity to give a seminar at Technion and decided then that he had found his future academic home.

His FAST research group, short for Fundamentals and Application of Selective (separation) Technology, explores and develops environmental applications, based on membrane technology, with a focus on understanding molecular transport and selectivity in membranes and other nanoscale pores.

The aim is to develop selective separation technologies for a wide range of environmental applications, with a focus on membrane technologies at the water-energy nexus.

Together with his Yale mentor, Prof. Menachem Elimelech, Epzstein recently published an article in Nature Nanotechnology which is about the future of ion-selective synthetic membranes which are used widely in desalination and other technologies. Epzstein explains, “Current synthetic membranes are not selective enough and can hardly distinguish between two similar species, as they mostly rely on the size of the molecule to be removed. We were inspired by the discovery of the mechanisms underlying the tantalizing selectivity in biological channels. We introduce a framework for the design of single-species selective membranes for water-treatment applications and beyond.”

Prof. Epzstein finds the study of separation technologies both fascinating and important because fundamental and applied research can go hand in hand. He is happy to be at Technion because of the people here who he likes and Technion’s reputation and leadership in energy studies. In GTEP Epzstein is confident he will be able to find some good people to collaborate with and be able to develop his lab skills to work on energy-related projects besides his major research line in water treatment.