Jeffrey McCutcheon is the General Electric Professor of Advanced Manufacturing in the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut. For nearly 20 years, he has pioneered work in membrane based separations, notably in the areas of osmotic processes and membrane formation. He has published over 100 refereed publications and has several patents on membrane technology. He has served as president of the North American Membrane Society (NAMS) and as the Deputy Topic Area lead for Materials & Manufacturing Topic Area in the National Alliance for Water Innovation, the U.S. Department of Energy’s $100M “Water Hub” dedicated to supporting the development of desalination technology in the United States. He has received numerous awards including the FRI/John G. Kunesh Award from the AIChE Separations Division, the AIChE Separation Division FRI/Neil Yeoman Innovation Award, the North American Membrane Society Permeance Prize and the Global Water Summit Water Technology Idol. He was inducted into the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering in 2021. In 2017, he was named the Executive Director of Fraunhofer USA Center for Energy Innovation and served for 3 years before taking the Center to its now independent status as the Connecticut Center for Applied Separations Technologies (CCAST). CCAST is dedicated to identifying opportunities to implement membrane and other advanced separation technology into various industrial processes in order to lower energy use, reduce carbon footprint, limit waste, and prevent adverse environmental and health impacts.