John Howarter

Assistant Professor of Materials Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering

John Howarter received his B.S. in materials science and engineering from The Ohio State University in 2003 and his Ph.D. in materials engineering from Purdue in 2008. Before joining the Purdue faculty, he served as a National Research Council post-doctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. 

His research is focused on reducing the operational energy footprint of polymer membranes through material design. This includes work on material improvements of polyamide membranes used in desalination and functional composite membranes for targeted separation of industrial wastewater. He has a joint appointment between the School of Materials Engineering and the Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering.