It is a great pleasure, and, indeed, an honor, to contribute to a dynamic and thoughtful organization like the Waterloo Filtration Institute, and I am very excited and grateful to take on the role of Communications Director. This is a critical time for both the filtration industry and for this organization, as we strive to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world that offers unprecedented levels of both peril and possibility. To meet these challenges and press beyond them, we need ever-greater focus and creativity, and the Waterloo Filtration Institute has become an essential venue for people with common interests and passions to share information and elevate the discourse.
One thing that stands out clearly in this organization is the commitment of its staff, contributors, members, and students to the ideals of creating a cleaner world that is both sustainable and prosperous, and to the field of filtration as instrumental in pursuing those ideals. The global megatrends that are shaping the world – Climate Change, Urbanization, Global Mobility, and De-Carbonization, to name a few – present unique challenges to our industry, and to manage these and capitalize on them requires an integrated understanding of the underlying scientific principles, the applied science of filtration, the larger systems where they operate, and the economic incentives that drive behavior on both individual and macro levels. The Waterloo Filtration Institute is a forum for education and understanding that embraces the complexity of these issues with a diversity of skills, experience and viewpoints that enables comprehensive engagement with these truly global challenges.
The core of the WFI mission is education, and this year we have the largest and most geographically diverse cohort yet for our Certification in Filtration and Separation Specialist (CFSS) course, and we welcome an impressive and enthusiastic group of expert instructors and panelists from both business and academia. This opportunity for the mixing of academic rigor and market reality provides broad-based perspectives that address not only how things work, but why they work the way they do, and what we as individuals and organizations can do at the margins to effect change. As we expand our programming and outreach in the coming months, we will continue to seek out participants from different parts of the filtration community and from adjacent disciplines to further widen our scope for greater understanding.
Learning, of course, is not just for the young, or for those who are new to the industry. At WFI we seek to engage everyone regardless of experience and offer an opportunity to expand both knowledge and network in a professional non-commercial setting. With programming such as “The Filtration Hours,” we assemble expert panelists from around the world to discuss the complex issues in an interactive and friendly format intended to draw in the participation of people at all levels of the industry. These sessions are what first drew my attention to WFI, and I hope that all of you busy executives out there give yourselves a treat and take the time to either listen in or participate as a panelist.
On behalf of everyone associated with the Waterloo Filtration Institute, I’d like to thank Dr. Christine Sun, whose vision and energy created this organization, as well as all of the many contributors and member organizations who have helped it grow into the global resource it is today. We are excited to be part of this dynamic industry and look forward to even greater engagement and interaction in the future.
Waterloo Filtration Institute
Mike Malloy, Communications Director
Date: 5-17-24