Victor Smith is an industrial research analyst at Global Water Intelligence. Since joining GWI in 2024 he has conducted research on the market for water treatment chemicals and the chemical manufacturing industry. He is now looking at water-related opportunities and spending in data centres. Victor holds a BA in History and Economics and an MA in History from the University of Manchester.

Microelectronics UPW Technical Director for Evoqua Water Technologies, LLC. Responsible for process development, optimization, troubleshooting and technical support of high purity water systems within the semiconductor, nanotechnology and solar markets. Also responsible for operating and maintaining an E-1.2 UPW system in the Evoqua Microelectronics Technology Suite. Has been with Evoqua (starting with IWT) for over 37 years in various roles responsible for developing, growing and supporting products and technologies within the Corporate and Industrial segments. These roles include; Product Manager, Process Development Manager and Applications Engineering Manager. Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, with emphasis on high-energy physics, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and located at the Evoqua office in Rockford, Illinois. Authored and co-authored several papers on topics including nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, ultrafiltration, advanced oxidation and particle removal for the semiconductor industry.

Xylem

Dan’s almost three decades of experience as a facilities engineering manager, process engineer, design engineer, construction project manager and tool hookup design in the advanced technologies and semiconductor manufacturing industry has led to innovative solutions in his work. His innovations have resulted in industry-changing quality and cost savings breakthroughs, including defect reduction and innovative water reclaim and re-use systems. Dan is well established in the semiconductor industry as an Ultra-pure Water, UHP Chemical and Wastewater expert as shown in his leadership of industry roadmap and collaboration teams. He is certified by ASQ as a six sigma black belt. His roles include Co-Chair of International Roadmap for Device and Systems (IRDS) Yield Enhancement (YE) team, Co-Chair UPW SEMI Standards team, and UP Micro Conference Strategy Team. In addition to many industry publications, Dan also holds a patent for Reduction of Charging Induced Damage in Photolithography Wet Process.

Samsung Austin Semiconductor

Hyeongrak Cho is a water treatment expert and researcher at Kookmin University's Smart Water Environment Leading Laboratory (SWELL). Born in 1986, Cho obtained his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Kookmin University in Seoul, Korea, in September 2019. During his graduate studies, Cho focused his research on the treatment of water, wastewater, and desalination using membranes. In particular, he developed expertise in the treatment of highly concentrated salt wastewater, publishing a paper entitled "Effect of pre-treatment and operating conditions on the performance of membrane distillation for the treatment of shale gas wastewater" in Desalination (IF 6.035). Cho has conducted two successful projects on the treatment of highly concentrated wastewater. The first involved treating shale gas wastewater generated in Texas using the membrane distillation technique, and the second involved treating highly concentrated desalinated seawater using a semi-pilot MD instrument. Manuscripts from these projects are currently being submitted to high-impact water treatment journals. Cho's experience also includes knowledge of MF/UF, coagulation, and sedimentation for pre-treatment and chemical, physical, and ultrasonic washing for post-treatment. He has collaborated on desalination projects involving forward osmosis (FO), reverse osmosis (RO), reverse electrodialysis (RED), and capacitive deionization (CDI). In addition to his research, Cho is studying modeling for the automation of water treatment plants using Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Life Cycle Assessment for decreasing Carbon emission, Computational Fluid dynamics, and pipe analysis and design for Ultra pure water supply. Cho believes that his strong understanding of general and next-generation water treatment techniques and his experience in pilot operations make him a valuable asset to any research project.

Dr. Rushikesh (Rushi) Matkar is the Pathfinding Technologist for Water purification at Intel’s R&D Center in Hillsboro, OR and a corporate owner for the leadership roadmap of Intel's water management group. Responsible for driving solutions towards the success of Intel's high volume manufacturing roadmap. He is passionate about high purity delivery of utilities, IOT and advanced manufacturing. Between Academia and Industry, Rushi has extensive experience in bringing new IP to Market. Recently, Rushi successfully led the program to introduce EUV Lithography as a patterning solution for fabrication at Globalfoundries. He has served multiple roles within the leading nodes in technology management, operations and engineering management to help multiple technology nodes meet mass-market benefits.

Ovivo

Deena Starkel has B.S. in Environmental Science and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Idaho. She is a licensed Professional Environmental Engineer with 22+ years of experience in the semiconductor industry as a Facilities Chemical and Water Engineer for Micron Technology. Deena is currently working as a Member of Technical Staff Principal Water Engineer for Micron’s R&D facility and corporate headquarters in Boise, ID and is focused on UPW and wastewater treatment design, process engineering, and operations. Deena has been a member of the UPW IRDS and other groups since 2018.

Micron

I am a professional chemical engineer located in Kansas City. I focused on water and wastewater treatment design for the first 15 years of my career before transitioning into engineering and project management where I have mainly managed large water and wastewater projects for 10 years.

Kiewit

Senior Process Chemical Engineer with 30+ years of experience working in Facilities Operation Engineering and Design within the semiconductor manufacturing industry. He is a Subject Matter Expert in chemicals, chemical systems, and application for semiconductor manufacturing, pollution abatement, water and wastewater treatment and supporting HazWaste systems and operation.

Dr. Altun is the co-founder and CEO of UNISERS AG, an ETH Zurich spinoff from Switzerland. UNISERS has been developing a wafer defect inspection and review tool with a sub-10nm detection limit. Dr. Altun has 15-year experience in nanotechnology and optical sensing. Prior to his position at UNISERS AG, he did a Ph.D. at ETH Zurich. He worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (2011-2014) and Korean Institute of Machinery and Materials (2005-2010). He had his B.Sc. degree from METU (Middle East Tech. Univ.), Turkey and M.Sc. degree at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology).

UNISERS

Gary Van Schooneveld is President of CT Associates, Inc. Gary has over 30 years of experience with high-purity fluid systems including chemical delivery and ultrapure water and the development and testing of their associated materials and components. He is the author or co-author of more than 45 technical papers and presentations. Gary is co-chair of the SEMI UPW Task Force and an active member of the IRDS UPW and IRDS Critical Components Task Forces. Gary as been a key contributor in the development and validation of SEMI specification for measuring filter retention below 15 nm (SEMI C79), particle shedding from critical components (SEMI F104) and extractables ion exchange resin rinse performance (SEMI C93). Gary has BS and MS degrees in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY) and an MBA from the University of Texas (Arlington, TX).

CT Associates

Dr. Sriram (Ram) Ramamoorthy is a Supply Chain R&D Engineer/Technologist in Intel’s Fab Materials Organization managing specialty chemicals and filtration. Prior to this role, Ram was a senior process technology development engineer in Intel R&D fab in Oregon developing front end wet etch processes. Ram is an active member in IRDS and SEMI task forces and standards team. Ram received his Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY).

Intel

Alain is a Global Technical Lead and Senior Application Specialist TSI Incorporated, based in Aachen, Germany. With over 30 years in contamination control, cleanroom monitoring, and precision instrumentation, he supports global teams and customers in implementing advanced environmental monitoring strategies across pharmaceutical, semiconductor, and life science industries, including expertise in Facility Monitoring Systems (FMS) Software for real-time data management and compliance.


Before TSI, Alain held senior engineering and project management roles, leading complex cleanroom installations, particle monitoring systems, and facility validation projects. Known for blending technical expertise with practical application, he helps organizations achieve the highest standards of contamination control and regulatory compliance worldwide.


Alain is an active member of ISPE, PDA, IEEE, IRDS, and the UltraFacility community, contributing to industry best practices and innovation in contamination control.

Mike Schmidt

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