Asatekin awarded 2025 NAMS Permeance Prize

The North American Membrane Society (NAMS) recently awarded Associate Professor Ayse Asatekin of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering with a 2025 NAMS Permeance Prize for Mid-Career Excellence. Each year, NAMS honors two researchers based on their exemplary track record in advancing membrane science or technology and their recognized service to NAMS. Asatekin will receive her award at the upcoming NAMS annual meeting in Nashville this May.

Asatekin earned her PhD at MIT and joined Tufts in 2012. In 2023, she was named a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors. She has also been named as one of the top 100 Turkish women with the most patent applications worldwide according to the online platform International Property Rights Explorer. She serves as a board member of NAMS.

At Tufts, her research focuses on designing novel membranes for water treatment, removal of multiple types of pollutants, small molecule separations, and energy-efficient smart filtration processes. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, she also works on novel polymers for energy storage applications, improved biomaterials and microfluidic devices, and improving water treatment approaches in emergency response and lower- and middle-income countries.

Asatekin has translated several of her inventions into start-up companies, giving her research a real-world impact. She is the co-founder and scientific advisor of Clean Membranes, Inc., which commercialized a fouling-resistant membrane technology that she began developing during her doctoral research. She also serves as the senior scientific advisor for ZwitterCo, Inc., a start-up spun out of Tufts to commercialize novel zwitterionic membranes developed in her lab.

NAMS is a professional society that promotes all aspects of membrane science and technology. Their focus ranges from fundamental studies of membrane material science to process application and development. The organization strengthens membrane research through national and international meetings, short courses and workshops, a quarterly publication, and funding graduate student research in the field.

Learn more about Associate Professor Ayse Asatekin.