Dr. Ivonne Santiago is a Clinical Professor of the Civil Engineering Department and a member of the Center for Inland Desalination Systems (CIDS) at University of Texas at El Paso.

As Clinical Professor, her main responsibility is to foster projects that connect education and research to engineering practice and real-world applications. Dr. Santiago has a combined experience of over 20 years in the areas of water quality, water treatment and wastewater treatment in Puerto Rico (PR), New Mexico and Texas.

She has worked as Director of the Water Quality Area of the PR Environmental Quality Board) as consultant, performing technical and compliance audits of water and waste treatment plants in PR); as an environmentally engaged citizen (on the EPA’s National Advisory Committee and the EPA’s Good Neighbor Environmental Board for the President and Congress of the US).

As researcher, Dr. Santiago is working on the use of natural and surface modified zeolites in water, wastewater, and agricultural applications, and sustainability determinations of POU systems. Dr. Santiago is committed to innovation and entrepreneurship activities at UTEP as Co-PI for the UTEP Pathways to Innovation Program, the Mike Loya Center for Innovation and Commerce grantee, and as Principal Investigator for a National Science Foundation I-Corps project.

Her commitment to connecting education to practice is demonstrated by the local and state teaching awards she has won (2014 UTEP’s CETaL Award; 2014 CoE Instruction Award; 2014 The University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award; 2012 NCEES Award for students’ design of a Fire Station).