Raphael Semiat is a professor in the Chemical Engineering Department, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. Currently, Head of Chemical Engineering Program, Guangdong-Technion Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) and president of the Israel Desalination Society. Served as a co-editor of Desalination Journal. He was nominated to hold the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Chair in Science, engineering and management. He served as the chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department and the director of the Grand Water Research Institute and is in charge of the Rabin Desalination Laboratory.

He obtained his B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from the Technion in 1973 and obtained his D.Sc. dissertation on MED Desalination in 1978 at the Technion. Expert in separation processes with industrial experience in IMI(TAMI), a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals Ltd, where he served as a senior research engineer and as the head of the Heat and Mass Transfer Engineering Research Department.

R. Semiat joined the Chemical Engineering Department, Technion, in 1990. His main research interests are: Process Development; Separation Processes with emphasis on Desalination. Of particular relevance are the research subjects associated with membranes processes and membrane fouling prevention. He has published over than two hundred papers/chapters in scientific journals/books and similar number in conference proceedings. Most of his current research subjects are associated with the industry.

The Rabin Desalination Laboratory (RDL)

The Rabin Desalination Laboratory, named in honor of the late Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, was founded in June 1996, as part of the Water Research Institute. The Rabin Desalination Laboratory is equipped with facilities for studying thermal and membrane separations (RO, NF, UF, MF and ED). The desalination laboratory has access to analytical and computing facilities available in the Chemical Engineering Department and in other GWRI laboratories (ICP, FTIR, SEM, TEM etc.). Current projects include researches related to sea-water, brackish water desalination, sewage water recovery, drinking water quality etc. The laboratory has acquired special expertise in the field of scaling and fouling and their mitigation in both thermal and membrane processes.