Andrew Benedek

Dr. Andrew Benedek received his engineering degree (chemical) from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 1966. By 1970, Dr. Benedek obtained a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, U.S.A., with a focus on wastewater treatment.  He then accepted a professorship at McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada where he taught and conducted research to find ways of improving water quality.

In 1980, Dr. Benedek founded ZENON Environmental Inc., with the purpose of developing cost effective membrane technologies for recycling wastewater.  Under his leadership, ZENON has invented many of the key membrane technologies used for water and wastewater treatment and became the global leader in this field. Dr. Benedek continued to be the chairman and CEO of ZENON until its June 2006 sale to General Electric. At the time of the sale, the company had annual sales of approximately CDN $250 Million  and employed 1,500 people.                                                                                                          .
After the sale of the company, Dr Benedek worked at the Scripps Institute of Technology in San Diego where he became interested in helping to find solutions to the Global Climate Change problem . In view of this new interest, he left Scripps  to develop renewable energy  waste. In 2008, he became the Managing Director of UTS BiogasTechnik GMBH, a German pioneer in biogas generation from waste. Once the Germany company had a strong local leadership, he returned to the US to develop the North American operations and the global research and development of the company under the Anaergia name. Currently he is the Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Anaergia Inc., the parent company of a group of companies, including the various UTS entities worldwide, dedicated to products and services dedicated to converting wastewater solids and other organic wastes to energy, fertilizer and pure water..

Dr Benedek’s  has received many awards. These include honorary doctorates from Universities, awards for entrepreneurship and for contributions toward solving global problems. For example, in 2008, he was chosen as the inaugural recipient of one of the most prestigious prizes in the world for contributions to solving water problems, the Lee Kwan Yew Prize.

Dr. Benedek served on many public boards such as the National Research Council of Canada. He was a member of the Board of IWA (the International Water Association) where he also served as a member of the Council of Distinguished Water Professionals. In addition, he is a member of the International Advisory panel of the Government of Singapore and a member of the Lee Kwan Yew prize nominating committee.

Noted as a leading authority on global water related issues, he has written over 100 scientific papers on different water and wastewater treatment technologies and lectured extensively as keynote speaker to learned societies around the world.