Dean, IDRA Desalination Academy
President and Chief Technology Officer of Leading Edge Technologies Ltd
President and Chief Technology Officer of Leading Edge Technologies Ltd. (LET), Leon Awerbuch has been involved in the desalination industry for more than 35 years. He joined Bechtel Group in 1972 in R&D followed by increased responsibilities for power and water programs as International Bechtel Co. Ltd Vice President and Senior Regional Representative for the Middle East. During his 35-year career with Bechtel, he was in charge of desalination programs involved in R&D, design and engineering as well as EPC of desalination and power projects.
As a developer of LET Integrated Upgrading Systems using Nanofiltration membrane softening technology, he was granted numerous patents covering the MED-MSF-RO-NF Integrated Hybrid Technologies. Other patents cover Geothermal Energy and Flue Gas Desulphurization. Mr. Awerbuch was one of the early pioneers in Hybrid Power-Desalination concepts, Desalination Aquifer Storage and Recovery (DASR) and Hybrid MSF-MED. The patented Integrated Hybrid MSF-NF project won the 2007 Global Water Intelligence Award for Innovation. Mr. Awerbuch also won the first prize for Innovation conferred by the Saudi Water and Electricity Forum in 2007. Based on his patents, LET was a first prize winner of Innovative Use / Application of Technology awarded by inaugural H20 Water Awards 2010 celebrating the outstanding achievements of individuals and organizations who contributed to the advancement of the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region’s water industry.
Mr. Awerbuch is a Past President of IDRA and was Chairman of six IDRA World Congresses. He currently serves as a Director of the Association and has been a Chairman of IDRA’s Technical Programs for the past 20 years. As such, he has organized and chaired over 40 conferences, forums, seminars and workshops around the world. He was elected to the Board of NWSIA (predecessor of IDRA) at the first Conference in Key Largo Florida 1973.
Mr. Awerbuch holds 28 patents and has published over 90 technical papers. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from IDRA at the 2007 World Congress in Grand Canarias and Life Achievement at the Inaugural Power Generation and Water Solutions Middle East Awards October 2009.
He was a technical editor of publications on desalination and water reuse culminating in the United Nations International Year on Freshwater, addressing global freshwater challenge in preparation for 2005-15 (designated the International Decade on “Water for Life”). He contributed to the Guidebook to Membrane Desalination Technology edited by Mark Wilf and a book on Measurements and Control in Water Desalination edited by Naom Lior. He is a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Middle East Research Center (MEDRC), and serves on the Editorial Boards of the IDRA Journal on Desalination & Water Reuse, Desalination and Water Reuse Quarterly, and Desalination & Water Treatment Science and Engineering Journal. He is currently Chair of IDRA’s Energy Task Force and the first Dean and faculty member of the IDRA Desalination Academy.
Mr. Awerbuch received a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry from Warsaw Technical University. He has also undertaken Graduate Study toward a PhD in Chemical Engineering, at Warsaw Technical University and Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York.
