Texas Engineer Guihua Yu recently received the Grand Discovery Prize at the 2025 Global Prize for Innovation in Water (GPIW) in Saudi Arabia, a prestigious international honor for breakthrough water technologies, in recognition of his pioneering work developing hydrogel-based systems for solar-driven water purification and atmospheric water harvesting. The Grand Prize is awarded to a single innovation that demonstrates exceptional scientific originality, global impact potential, and readiness for real-world deployment.
Yu holds the John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair in Engineering with affiliations in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and Texas Materials Institute. He was chosen by an international panel from more than 2,500 candidates for his transformative contributions to solar-driven clean water production and seawater desalination. The international jury cited Yu’s water–energy nexus technologies as a paradigm shift in sustainable water production, noting the potential to bring low-cost, off-grid clean water to communities facing intensifying water scarcity under climate change.
“As global demand for clean water intensifies under climate change and population growth, this honor underscores the power of material science to deliver real-world solutions,” said Yu.
Yu has been working on generating new sources of drinking water for more than a decade. This effort has included more than 30 students and at least 10 collaborators around the world.
He has made several key innovations in this quest, which stems from growing up seeing a lack of access to clean water in his community:
- Solar-powered hydrogel desalination systems capable of purifying seawater or wastewater using only sunlight.
- Atmospheric-water harvesting gels, engineered to pull moisture from air—even in arid, low-humidity climates—and release potable water when heated by the sun[LN1] .
- Soft-material filtration systems, including biodegradable nanocellulose-based hydrogel filters that remove ultrafine particles without electricity.
- Smart soils based on water harvesting gels for sustainable farming.
Looking ahead, Yu and his team plan to refine their solar water purification and harvesting technologies, scale deployment, and collaborate with global partners, including environmental nonprofits, international development agencies, and other research institutions, to bring clean water access to many water-stressed regions worldwide.