Link to program overview: www.membranes.org/program-at-a-glance

July 18: Workshops

July 19: Workshops + Opening Reception and World Cup Final Viewing Party

July 20: Parallel technical sessions and first plenary

July 21st: Parallel technical sessions and second plenary

July 22nd: Parallel technical sessions and early release for sight-seeing or EnergyX plant tour

July 23rd: Parallel technical sessions, third plenary, and conference banquet

July 24th: Conference awards, closing ceremony, and announcement of ICOM 2029

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Parallel Session Topics:

• Reverse Osmosis

• Bio-Refineries

• Membrane Technology for PFAS removal

• Ion Exchange and Electrically Driven Processes

• Ultrathin Membranes

• Nanofiltration

• Transport through RO membranes

• Membrane Adsorbers for Resource Recovery

• Isoporous Membranes

• Osmotic Membrane Processes

• Catalytic & Membrane Reactors

• Membrane Technology for Purification of Gene Therapies

• Cation-Cation or Anion-Anion Selectivity

• NAMS Award

• Membrane Characterization

• Biomimetic & Bioinspired Membranes

• Hybrid Membranes

• Mixed Matrix Membranes

• Carbon Dioxide Capture

• Vapor Permeation/Pervaporation

• Biomedical & Bioseparations

• Electrochemical Membrane Processes

• Modeling

• Membrane Fabrication using Sustainable Technologies

• Membrane Module Design & Fabrication

• Micro & Ultrafiltration

• Poster Submissions

• Wastewater Treatment

• Emerging Membrane Science & Technology

• Fouling

• Aseanian Membrane Society Session

• Sustainable Membranes and Processes

• Responsive Membranes

• Inorganic Membranes

• Membrane Contactors

• Surface Modification & Patterning

• Desalination & Drinking Water

• Gas Separations

https://aiche.confex.com/aiche/icom26/meetingapp.cgi

Detailed overview of workshops

1.     Bioprocessing

·       Focus on downstream purification process development, with emphasis on virus-retentive filtration applications. ·       Tangential flow filtration (TFF) implementation, scale-up/down, troubleshooting, and process development support. ·       Applied examples include peptide purification and single-pass TFF (SPTFF) for continuous/intensified processes.

2.     Electrochemical processes using membranes
·       Ion-exchange membranes (IEMs): transport/thermodynamics, analytical methods, characterization, and manufacturing. ·       Electro-driven unit ops: electrodialysis, electrolysis, fuel cells, and electrosorption. ·       Cross-sector (academia + national lab + industry) comprehensive workshop.

3.     Workshop on Membranes for Water Treatment and Applications
·       Practical guidance on desalination + wastewater reclamation: membrane selection, configurations, performance, operating conditions. ·       Toxic pollutant removal/destruction, including PFAS “detoxification,” and critical metals recovery using advanced functionalized/responsive membranes. ·       Includes feedwater quality & pretreatment, plus economics and module design/scale-up considerations.

4.     Membrane Gas Separations
·       Spans materials science + transport fundamentals through process design and economics for gas/vapor separations. ·       Module-focused content includes spiral-wound and hollow-fiber module manufacture, performance equations, and practical inefficiencies. ·       Applications section covers air separation, H₂ separation, natural gas (acid gas/N₂) separations, NGL recovery, VOC removal, plus emerging applications.

5.     Introduction to Membrane Modeling and Scale-up Concepts
·       Connects transport fundamentals to modeling practice; emphasizes hands-on examples and building process-level membrane models. ·       Hands-on work through staged templates. ·       Covers model development → sensitivity analysis/design specs → embedding the membrane model in a flowsheet with other unit ops.

6.     Measurement Methods for Membranes
·       Survey-style overview of membrane science via measurements: properties, instruments, techniques, and underlying principles. ·       Materials/structures, gas & liquid transport, metrology/porometry, surface/chemical measurements, and visualization/scattering, plus emerging characterization topics. ·       Includes pre-read journal articles + participant survey ahead of time, and ends with an industrial perspective/panel on how characterization supports business objectives.    

Poster dimensions are 48” high, 30” wide.

Oral Presentation Sessions:

1. Every session starts with a 30-min keynote, which should be ~25 min for presentation and ~5 min for questions. 

2. The remaining 6 talks of every session are 20 min each, which should be ~17 min for presentation and ~3 min for questions. 

3. All sessions are identical in format so that attendees can move in between sessions based on interest; therefore, it is very important that speakers adhere strictly to these guidelines. 

Please contact NAMS (nams@membranes.org) if you are interested in exhibiting your products!

Details can be seen in the Prospectus, below (scroll down).

Please contact NAMS (nams@membranes.org) if you want to sponsor this exciting conference!

Details can be seen in the Prospectus, below (scroll down).

The NAMS awards committee is pleased to announce travel support for US-based undergraduate and graduate students to attend ICOM 2026 (San Antonio, TX) from July 18-25, 2026.  These travel awards, generously sponsored by the US National Science Foundation (NSF),  will provide a total of $1250 to each student. This is anticipated to cover the conference registration cost and 2-3 nights of hotel stay. About 10 undergraduate and 30 graduate students are expected to be selected for these awards.

Eligibility guidelines

• Each research group can nominate a maximum of 1 graduate student and 1 undergraduate student for these awards.  Priority for selecting undergraduate students will be given to groups from which no graduate students have been selected

• Recipients of other 2025 NAMS fellowships/awards (Elias Klien, Student fellowships etc.) are not eligible for these awards

• Students must be from US-based institutions; permanent residency/citizenship not required

• Undergraduate and graduate students applying for this award must be currently enrolled in their degree programs

• Undergraduate students need not have prior background/experience in membrane science

Travel award application process – due by January 31, 2026

The following documents must be submitted to isabel.escobar@uky.edu to be considered for these awards: 

• 1–2-page curriculum vitae

• Abstract(s) for planned poster and/or presentations for ICOM 2026

• Research dossier (maximum 2 pages with references) 

• Use “NSF Undergraduate and Graduate Student Travel Awards for ICOM 2026” as the email subject line

For graduate students: Explaining the intellectual merits and broader impacts of the work to be presented at ICOM. If the student is planning to present on multiple topics, only one of the topics should be chosen for this research dossier. 

Intellectual merits : 1. Background and importance of work; 2. Novelty of the approach; 3. Key findings (if any); and 4. Conclusions and future work. 

Broader impacts : Explain the broader impacts of the work in terms of perceived societal impacts and benefits to the field of separations and membrane science 

For undergraduate students: 

Intellectual merits : 1. Background of work; 2. Methods and techniques used for work; 3. Key findings of the work; 4. Summary and future work 

Broader impacts:  Explain the problem you are trying to address, your solution and the perceived societal benefits of your solution in layman terms

      Award recipients will be announced by March 1. 

Requirements from award recipients 

• All award recipients will be at least guaranteed a poster at ICOM 2026 

• Award recipients must attend the student workshops 

• All recipients will be required to make a 3-minute video explaining the background, significance, and societal benefits of their work in layman terms.  The recipients will be mentored by Planet Forward (https://planetforward.org/) to create these videos and the top 3 videos will be selected for additional awards and posted on the NAMS website. The results for the top 3 videos will be announced during the awards ceremony of the conference. More detailed instructions for these videos will be shared with the travel award recipients. 

Any questions should be directed to Prof. Oishi Sanyal (oishi.sanyal@mail.wvu.edu)