Bouchet Society Alumnus Named MacArthur Fellow

William Tarpeh, a former postdoctoral researcher in the U-M Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and 2018 alumnus of the Bouchet Honor Society, was named as one of this year’s 22 MacArthur Fellows, colloquially known as the MacArthur Genius Grants.

Now an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, Tarpeh’s research is focused on developing sustainable, practical ways of recovering chemical resources from wastewater. This includes the electrocatalyst-in-a-box (ECaB), and electrochemical reactor capable of extracting nitrogen from urine in municipal wastewater and converting it into ammonium sulfate for use in agricultural fertilizers and household cleaning products. He is also developing techniques to extract lithium and phosphorous for industrial applications. His work not only provides new avenues for sourcing these critical resources, but doing so in ways that require less energy and infrastructure and limit pollution.

The ECaB system is currently being piloted in California’s agriculture industry, where it has potential to produce cost-effective fertilizer while reducing pollution impacts from agricultural runoff, like algal blooms. Tarpeh is also running a pilot program in Kenya to produce urine-derived fertilizers at lower cost than synthetic fertilizer.

Established in 1981, the MacArthur Fellowship recognizes extraordinarily creative individuals with a track record of excellence in a field of scholarship or area of practice, who demonstrate the ability to impact society in significant and beneficial ways through their pioneering work or the rigor of their contributions.

Read more about Tarpeh and his work.