June 2018 Feature in WIRED
“Here’s the thing, though: You’ve been drinking recycled wastewater this whole time. ‘Somebody upstream of you is using the water, treating it, and then discharging it back, says USC’s Amy Childress, who specializes in the membranes that make desalination and wastewater treatment possible. ‘And then that water is treated again and used as drinking water.’ ”
Sept 2018 Feature in NewScientist
“‘Increasing salinity is one of the most important environmental issues of the 21st century,’ says engineer Amy Childress. ‘But smarter methods of desalination are emerging and they have benefits far beyond providing clean water.'”
Sept 2017 Feature in VOA Article
“‘With waste heat you’re going to have cycles and spikes. We’ve gone out to the field, measured waste heat at an industrial site. We come back. We plug that into our system, so that we can repeat that waste heat curve over and over and watch the response of membranes to the waste heat,’ said Childress, who directs USC’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department’s environmental engineering program.”
July 2015 Feature in Huffington Post
“A promising partnership between California’s Humboldt State University and the University of Southern California has come up with a system where salt water under high pressure drives electricity-generating turbines. The salt water provides the power for its own desalination process, reducing energy use by 30 per cent.”
SERDP Osmotic Membrane Bioreactor
The research team shows off the osmotic membrane bioreactor (OMBR) and membrane distillation units, which were since coupled together for a pilot-scale wastewater reuse system as part of a project funded by SERDP
Advanced Membrane Systems for Contaminant and Energy Challenges
A 2013 NWRI Clarke Prize Conference presentation by Amy Childress
CHILDRESS RESEARCH GROUP 