Fondo Universidad del Pacífico

Leo Gutierrez

Research Director

Leo Gutierrez, PhD.

Dr. Leo Gutierrez received his MSc and PhD degrees in Environmental Engineering in Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, and was a post-doctoral researcher at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology KAUST-Saudi Arabia, and a Research Fellow at Curtin University of Technology-Australia. Additionally, he conducted research collaborations/projects at the Argonne National Lab in Chicago and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University. Dr. Gutierrez is currently holding a Full-Professor and Research Director position at Universidad Del Pacífico (Ecuador), and also works as a Research Scientist at the CAPTURE European Center of Circular Economy at Ghent, Belgium. The current research interests of Dr. Gutierrez are mainly focused on three fields: a) resource recovery, b) natural aquatic environments,  and c) membrane technology applied to drinking and industrial/urban wastewater. Specific topics include: the impact of organic matter on fate and transport of (capped) nanomaterials (i.e., silver or MnO2 nanoparticles, micro/nano plastics and fibers) in natural aquifers and (waste) water treatment systems;  recovery of valuable molecules from waste streams, and physicochemical treatment of drinking/wastewater. Additionally, the characterization of nanomechanical properties of membranes (ultrafiltration hollow fibers, ionic exchange membranes, dense membranes) and (organic/bio) foulants is of special interest.  

leo.gutierrez@upacifico.edu.ec

Research Interests

  • Electrochemistry
  • Membrane technology
  • Electrodialysis
  • Brine management
  • Resource recovery
  • Urban/industrial wastewater treatment

 

Guleria, T., Rijnaarts, T., van den Broeke, J., Gutierrez, L., & Cornelissen, E. (2025). Selective Na+/K+ Separation from Greenhouse Wastewater Concentrate Streams Using Donnan Dialysis for Sustainable Water and Nutrient Recovery. Water Research, 124029.
Medina-Toala, A. N., Valverde-Armas, P. E., Mendez-Ruiz, J. I., Franco-González, K., Verdezoto-Intriago, S., Vitvar, T., & Gutiérrez, L. (2025). Brackish Water Desalination Using Electrodialysis: Influence of Operating Parameters on Energy Consumption and Scalability. Membranes, 15(8), 227.
Díaz-Mendoza, C., Mouthon-Bello, J., Botero, C. M., Villegas, J. V., & Gutiérrez, L. (2025). Temporal analysis of cigarette butt accumulation on a touristic beach in Cartagena, Colombia. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1-13.
Gutierrez, L., Kotoka, F., Mendez, J., Bossuyt, M., Alhadidi, A., Kourou, A., … & Cornelissen, E. (2025). Impact of Temperature, Membrane Type, and Process Parameters in Seawater Acidification Using Bipolar Membrane Electrodialysis. ACS Sustainable Resource Management.
Kotoka, F., Gutierrez, L., & Cornelissen, E. (2025). Separation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from nutrients in food waste using membrane contactor: An analysis of VFA-membrane interactions, separation efficiency, and nutrient rejection. Separation and Purification Technology, 133840.
Tan, L., Gutierrez, L., An, M., D’Haese, A., & Cornelissen, E. (2025). Comparative study of fouling in hollow fiber and flat sheet nanofiltration membranes by three organic foulants: Insights into configuration impact on fouling. Desalination, 118996.
Díaz-Mendoza, C., Mouthon-Bello, J., Botero, C. M., Acevedo-Barrios, R., & Gutiérrez, L. (2025). Microbiological analysis of cigarette butts and cigarette butt fibers on a tourist beach in Cartagena, Colombia. Scientific Reports, 15(1), 14510.
An, M., Gutierrez, L., D’Haese, A., Morent, R., De Geyter, N., & Cornelissen, E. (2025). Rejection of an emerging small neutral organic micropollutant by in-situ nanofiltration membrane modification for water treatment. Journal of Environmental Management, 380, 125052.
Filian, K., Mendez-Ruiz, J. I., Garces, D., Reveychuk, K., Ma, L., Melendez, J. R., … & Gutierrez, L. (2025). The effect of ph on aniline removal from water using hydrophobic and ion-exchange membranes. Water, 17(4), 547.

2014 – now Universidad Del Pacifico – Faculty of Technology, Sea, and Environment Ecuador

• Professor and Director of the Applied Research Center

2017 – now CAPTURE Center – Ghent University – Faculty of Bioengineering Belgium

• Particle and Interfacial Technology Group

2021 – now ESPOL Polytechnic University – Civil Engineering Department Ecuador

• Professor in the MSc Sanitary Engineering program

2019 – 2023 Poitiers University, Institute of Environmental and Materials Chemistry France

• Visiting Professor–Colloidal and Interfacial Chemistry applied to Membranes

2014 – 2016 & 2018 – 2021 Curtin University – Water Quality Research Centre Australia

• Research Fellow – Adjunct Research Scientist

2013 – 2014 King Abdulla University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Saudi Arabia

• Postdoc – Research Scientist – Water Desalination and Reuse Center

2007 – 2013 University of Illinois – Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering USA

• MSc. and PhD. Student. Research Assistant

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Saudi Arabia

Post-Doctoral Studies in Interfacial Science

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, Urbana, Illinois

Doctor of Philosophy in Civil and Environmental Engineering

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, Urbana, Illinois

Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering

• American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting & Exposition, New Orleans, U.S., April 2008

• National Science Foundation (NSF) 2009 site visit, Urbana, IL, U.S.

• Materials Research Society (MRS), San Francisco, U.S., April 2009

• Int. Conference of Surface and Colloid Science (ICSCS). Columbia University, New York, June 2009

• Association of Env. Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), Iowa City, U.S., July 2009

• ACS National Meeting & Exposition, San Francisco, U.S., March 2010

• Gordon Research Conference (GRC), Holderness, U.S., Jun. 2010

• International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem), Hawaii, U.S., Dec. 2010

• AEESP, Tampa, U.S., July 2011

• ACS National Meeting & Exposition, New Orleans, U.S., April 2013.

• Specialist Conference, Sapporo, Japan, 2014

• Interfaces Against Pollution Conference, Spain, 2016.

• Conference on Emerging Contaminants and Micropollutants in the Environment, Australia, 2016.

• Conference on Maritime Energy Management. World Maritime University, Sweden, 2017.

• Euromembranes, Valencia, Spain, 2018

• Belgian Membrane Society, Leuven, Belgium, 2018

• European Desalination Society, Athens, Greece, 2018

• 9th IWA Membrane Technology Conference and Exhibition on Water and Wastewater Treatment and Reuse, France, 2019

• 3rd IWA Resource Recovery Conference IWA RR, Italy, 2019

• Biorefine Conference, Belgium, 2022

• Euromembranes, Italy 2022

• IWA – St Louis, USA, 2023

• IWA – Daegu, South Korea, 2025