Alumnus Thomas J. Stanley to Deliver 19th Annual Tang Lecture on Oct. 3

Thomas J. Stanley
Thomas J. Stanley

Alumnus Thomas J. Stanley, the general manager and chief technology officer at SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions, will deliver the College of Engineering's 19th annual Tang Lecture Wednesday, Oct. 3 at 4 p.m. in the Great Hall of Old Chapel. A reception will follow the lecture, “Water Treatment Technologies for Recovery and Reuse in an Increasingly Water Scarce World,”  at 5 p.m. The public is invited to this free event.

This talk will examine the trend of an increasing gap between the need for water by society for agricultural, municipal and industrial uses and the locally available sources of water of suitable quality for those applications. An important example and the focus of this talk is the treatment of wastewater for recycle and reuse, which can be a very cost-effective means to reduce net water consumption.

Stanley will explain that there are many approaches to address our water problems, including a range of activities and changes to our behaviors and industrial processes to consume less water. He will also include a brief summary of treatment options for water used in the production of oil and gas, an issue that has been much in the news in recent years due to the important and increasing role water plays in that industry. 

Stanley has had a 32-year career serving in a number of engineering and technology positions for GE and now SUEZ. He currently leads the Global Technology organization for the Industrial Water Treatment Division of SUEZ and partners with commercial, product management and supply chain organizations to maximize growth through new products and technology initiatives.

Stanley, who currently holds eight patents, received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the UMass Amherst, a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

The Shirley and Ting-wei Tang Endowment Lecture Series brings leaders of engineering-based companies to campus to interact with students and faculty and present a major talk. Shirley Tang was an academic advisor for the United Asia Learning Resource Center. Professor emeritus Ting-wei Tang has had a remarkable and distinguished career of 38 years at UMass Amherst. An internationally recognized expert in numerical modeling of semiconductor devices, Tang was elected as an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Fellow in 1999. He received the 2009 Distinguished Faculty Award from UMass Amherst.