Bruce Rittmann

Rittmann is the inventor of the Hydrogen-based Membrane Biofilm Reactor (MBfR), which can be used to reduce and detoxify a wide range of oxidized pollutants commonly found in water: e.g., nitrate, perchlorate, chromate, selenate, trichloroethene, and uranyl. In the MBfR, H2 gas is delivered directly to H2-oxidizing bacteria that live on the outer surface of a bubble-less gas-transfer membrane. The oxidized contaminants in the water moving past the biofilm are reduced to harmless or readily removed forms. Rittmann holds six patents on the MBfR, which is commercialized at the ARo (Autotrophic Reduction of) technology by APTwater. The MBfR won the 2011 Environmental Engineering Excellence Award from the American Academy of Environmental Engineers.

Bruce E. Rittmann is Regents' Professor of Environmental Engineering and Director of the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University. He was also elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2004 for pioneering the development of biofilm fundamentals and contributing to their widespread use in the cleanup of contaminated waters, soils, and ecosystems.

Bioremediation refers to the microorganism-based clean up of contaminated soils and associated water. Rittmann's PhD research involved bioremediation of organic micropollants from wastewater recharge to aquifers. His work expanded to the bioremediation of chlorinated solvents, petroleum hydrocarbons, and radionuclides. Rittmann helped establish and direct the field of in situ bioremediation through the publication of two National Academy reports from committee he chaired: In Situ Bioremediation: When Does it Work? (1993), and Natural Attenuation for Groundwater Remediation (2000).

Rittmann was the President of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors in 1990-91, the same organization’s Distinguished Lecture in 2004, chairman of two National Research Council (NRC) committees concerning in situ bioremediation, vice-chairman of the NRC’s Water Science and Technology Board, and Editor-in-Chief of Biodegradation.

Rittmann joined the faculty in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1980 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate and full professor in 1984 and 1988. In 1992, Rittmann moved to Northwestern University to become the John Evans Professor and Area Coordinator of Environmental Engineering. In 2005, he moved to Arizona State University to start the Center for Environmental Biotechnology in the newly formed Biodesign Institute. He was named a Regents’ Professor in 2009, and the Center was endowed as the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology in 2011.

Rittmann was born in St. Louis, MO to Albert and Ruth Rittmann. He moved to Affton, MO at age 4 and attended Reavis Elementary School and Affton High School. In 1974, he received the BS degree in Civil Engineering and MS degree in Environmental and Sanitary Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. After working as an environmental engineer with Sverdrup & Parcel in St. Louis, he moved to Stanford University, where he received the PhD in Environmental Engineering in 1979. His PhD adviser was Perry L. McCarty.