Maria Kennedy, originally from Ireland, is Professor of Water Treatment Technology at IHE Delft, The Netherlands. She has 30 years of experience in education, research, consulting and capacity development in desalination and water treatment. She has supervised over 200 MSc and 22 PhD students in the areas of seawater and brackish water desalination, coagulation, advanced oxidation and biological stability. She has more than 165 peer reviewed journal publications (h-Index: 44), and has edited several book chapters on various aspects of desalination and water treatment. She has organized numerous international short courses on desalination e.g. in Jordan, Palestine, Oman, Dominican Republic, Iran, Chile, Yemen and South Africa. She has directed capacity development projects in the Middle East region e.g. in Jordan, Palestine, Yemen and Iran and she is also involved in several EU/Horizon 2020 research projects i.e. MIDES, IndiaH20, IntelWATT and MAR2PROTECT. Professor Maria Kennedy is past president of the European Desalination Society and Chairman of the board of directors. She was a member of the Science and Technology Board of the EU‐Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) and she was jury member of several prestigious international technology events such as the Oman Humanitarian Desalination Challenge and the International Aquatech Innovation Award.