Dr. Casey Thomas Kazuyuki Finnerty Ph.D.

Dr. Casey Thomas Kazuyuki Finnerty recently received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in environmental engineering, where he worked with professor Baoxia Mi. His doctoral research focused on synthesizing, characterizing, and developing materials capable of interfacial solar vapor generation (ISVG)—a phenomenon demonstrated by porous, light-absorbing materials that float at the air-water interface to vaporize water using sunlight at extremely high efficiencies. Casey explored 3D-ISVG materials that used capillary action to wick water onto additional surfaces for evaporation and were able to achieve even higher evaporative flux rates by sourcing energy from ambient heat. Through a collaboration, Casey was able to work with a small-island community (Bungin Island in Indonesia) to identify preliminary design criteria and evaluate the feasibility of a novel sustainable desalination technology using ISVG.

Casey just started a postdoctoral position with Menachem Elimelech at Yale University.