Veera Gnaneswar Gude, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE, D.WRE, F.ASCE, F.EWRI

NiSource-Meyer Charitable Foundation Professor of Energy and the Environment | Director, PNW Water Institute

Introduction

Veera Gnaneswar Gude is the NiSource-Meyer Charitable Foundation Professor of Energy and the Environment and Director of the Purdue University Northwest Water Institute. He is a distinguished civil and environmental engineer, professional engineer and board-certified environmental engineer with extensive research and academic leadership experience.

Research Overview

Gude’s research focus is on the understanding of the issues at the nexus of water, energy and the environment. He conducts both experimental investigation and theoretical assessment of various intertwined environmental problems. Water-energy nexus has been his core area of expertise which encompasses water desalination and energy-positive wastewater treatment through electrochemical and biological processes, resource recovery from waste streams and waste to energy technologies.

He also strives to develop resource-efficient water and energy technologies for sustainable development. He holds two U.S. patents in these technologies. His recent research efforts focus on the evaluation of the design and development of resilient and sustainable renewable (biomass in particular) energy systems for remote and isolated communities, considering extreme events and disasters.

Select Publications

• Nicolai, B.J.; Gude, V. Developing a Data Warehouse Tool for Analyzing the Water Quality in the Great Lakes, in Proceedings of the 9th International Electronic Conference on Water Sciences, 11–14 November 2025, MDPI: Basel, Switzerland.
• Daniel E. Marulanda, Abdur Rahman, Jason Street, Mohammad Marufuzzaman, Haifeng Wang, Veera G. Gude, Randy Buchanan, MoistViT: A vision transformer model for moisture content prediction of wood chips, Systems and Soft Computing, Volume 8, 2026, 200429, ISSN 2772-9419.
• Mohammad, Z.K.; Gude, V. A novel 3D-printed Capacitive Deionization Process for Desalination and Nutrient Recovery Applications, in Proceedings of the 6th International Electronic Conference on Applied Sciences, 9–11 December 2025, MDPI: Basel, Switzerland.

Teaching Focus

Gude has taught a broad range of environmental engineering courses spanning from fundamentals to advanced concepts in environmental engineering. He taught at all levels, from freshman to senior undergraduate students to master’s and Ph.D. students. He also engaged the community and K-12 students in various outreach programs.

Courses Taught

• Advanced Water Treatment Technologies
• Environmental Engineering Design
• Water Quality Engineering
• Sustainable Energy Systems

Additional Information

Gude’s research is centered at the intersection of water, energy and the environment, with a core focus on sustainable and resilient solutions for global water and energy challenges. His work explores water-energy-environmental nexus topics, including water desalination, energy-positive wastewater treatment through electrochemical and biological processes, resource recovery from waste streams, renewable energy integration and waste-to-energy technologies.

He has made significant contributions to advancing resource-efficient technologies for sustainable development and holds multiple U.S. patents in innovative water and energy systems. His recent efforts also consider the design and deployment of resilient renewable energy solutions for remote and disaster-impacted communities.

In addition to his leadership and research achievements, Gude is widely published in high-impact journals, highly cited in the fields of environmental engineering and sustainable technologies and recognized internationally for his expertise in desalination, wastewater treatment and resource recovery.