Wendell Khunjar
PhD, PE
As a six-year-old growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, taking apart his grandparents’ dining table to see how few screws could hold it together, Wendell Khunjar learned that proper preparation AND perseverance were key to success.
His formal journey into the water sector started at age 17, when Wendell came to the U.S. for college. He earned a B.S. at Howard University, where he worked as an undergraduate research assistant running bioreactors. “It combined the two things I loved: theory and hands-on practice.” After successfully enriching systems for nitrogen removal, he was hooked.
Wendell entered graduate school at Virginia Tech, where he earned an MS and PhD. His philosophy of perseverance in the face of hard problems carried him further into academia, through post-doctoral research at the University of Michigan and Columbia University. He has continued to contribute to transferring knowledge by lecturing at the University of Maryland, Columbia University, and recently as a research professor of practice at Manhattan University.
Now, as an Associate Vice President and Director of Wastewater Innovation, Wendell enjoys a variety of challenging opportunities at Hazen: advancing phosphorus recovery science, inventing next generation nutrient removal approaches demonstrating recovery of high-value carbon products, and much more.
“The next step is passing those opportunities onto the next generation of water scientists and engineers,” Wendell says. That includes Hazen’s team of up-and-coming professionals. And, perhaps eventually, his son, who Wendell found walking around his living room with a screwdriver and unidentified loose screws.