Dr Alireza Abbassi Monjezi

Dr Alireza Abbassi Monjezi is an Iranian-born engineer and entrepreneur who grew up with a deep interest in water access as a global challenge. He completed his PhD in chemical engineering at the University of Surrey in 2016, focusing on solar-powered desalination and forward osmosis membrane processes. Following his doctorate, he undertook postdoctoral research positions at Queen Mary University of London and the University of Edinburgh, where he developed the core technology that would become the foundation for Waterwhelm.

In 2018, Dr Abbassi Monjezi founded Waterwhelm in Edinburgh, commercialising his proprietary forward osmosis technology for wastewater reuse and desalination. The technology uses low-grade thermal energy — from industrial waste heat, solar thermal, or geothermal sources — to drive water treatment at dramatically lower energy intensity than conventional reverse osmosis, which he describes as addressing the electricity cost and carbon footprint that have limited wider adoption of water reuse at industrial scale.

Since founding Waterwhelm, Dr Abbassi Monjezi has built the company into a recognised leader in sustainable water technology in the UK. He was awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship in 2020, hosted by the University of Edinburgh. In 2019, Waterwhelm was named the top enterprise emerging from the University of Edinburgh, and the company won the Scottish EDGE Higg's Award for the top engineering and technology startup in Scotland in 2021. Dr Abbassi Monjezi has published more than ten peer-reviewed articles in international journals and holds multiple patents on his water treatment technology.

In 2023, he was listed by the Royal Academy of Engineering as one of the UK's 274 engineering icons of all time — appearing on a special engineering-themed version of the London Underground map. Waterwhelm has subsequently delivered pilot programmes with Northumbrian Water and Anglian Water, and is now scaling commercially through the UK government-backed Net Water PostiHyve project. Dr Abbassi Monjezi was also appointed to the board of directors of Asante Gold Corporation in January 2025 as a Fujairah Holdings nominee.