On May 30, 2019, Professor Ashok Gadgil from the University of California Berkeley visited IWHR and lectured at the Global Vision Forum sharing the water-related scientific results achieved by his research team recently. Professor Ashok Gadgil is the fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, prominent professor in safe water use and sanitation in UC Berkeley, and also the leader of the energy technology sector of the Berkeley Lab.

Taking five projects as the cases, Professor Gadgil introduced his team's research results in the field of water science and technology. He indicated that the scientific research in American universities features the emphasis on the practicality and low-cost roll-out of the research results, and the science and technology related policies in the US pays more attention to basic research, practical technology development and its commercialization. Based on this principle, Professor Gadgil’s research team has long been committed to the development and commercialization of electrochemical water treatment and capacitive deionizing technologies. He later introduced in detail the electrochemical treatment technology for arsenic water, the removal of new contaminants by the air cathode electroflocculation system, the accelerated descaling method for drinking water pipelines, as well as the fluoride treatment method for underground drinking water. A heated discussion followed on the high fluorine drinking water treatment in the depressed western regions in China and selection of technologies for new contaminants treatment.

Professor Gadgil is also the US-side director of the U.S./China Clean Energy Research Center for Water-Energy Technology (CERC-WET), while the executive deputy director of the Chinese side is IWHR’s Vice President Wang Jianhua. The collaborative program has obtained interim progress in the fields including reduction and utilization of water resources in thermal power plants, treatment and management of non-traditional water resources, design and operation of sustainable hydropower, assessment of climate change impacts on energy and water, and decision support for coordinated management of energy and water.