Water-Hydrophobe Interfaces: From Debunking Myths to Boosting Global Food-Water-Climate Resilience

Speaker

Himanshu Mishra

• Professor, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST),
  Thuwal, Saudi Arabia
• Co-founder, Terraxy LLC

About This Talk

Professor Himanshu Mishra, from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, outlines his team’s work on overcoming barriers to desert rehabilitation for urban greening, landscaping, and regional food security. In arid regions, freshwater is scarce, and sandy soils lose water and fertilizers rapidly, stifling plant growth. His group has developed two complementary solutions: Superhydrophobic Sand (SHS) — a plastic-free, bio-inspired mulch that reduces evaporative water loss from topsoil by ~80% — and CarboSoil, an engineered biochar that greatly enhances nutrient and water retention in sandy soils. He describes their translational journey from materials invention and characterization to multi-year field trials with food crops and native plants in collaboration with industry partners. Terraxy LLC, the startup he co-founded, is now scaling CarboSoil production to 6,000 tons per year for regional sustainability projects. He also presents recent investigations into the debated spontaneous formation of hydrogen peroxide at the air–water interface.

About the Speaker

Himanshu Mishra is a scientist-entrepreneur at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) working to transform deserts into permanently fertile landscapes, advancing global food, water, and climate security. He leads the development of CarboSoil, a #SaudiMade soil amendment derived from organic waste that enhances nutrient and water-use efficiency in arid soils while sequestering carbon for centuries — catalyzing a circular carbon economy. He earned his PhD in applied physics & materials science from Caltech (2013), followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Santa Barbara as an Elings Prize Fellow with the late Prof. Jacob Israelachvili. He joined KAUST in 2014 as an assistant professor and is now associate professor of environmental science and engineering and associate faculty at the Sustainable Food Security Center.

Over the past decade, his team has raised more than $7 million in competitive research funding, published over 50 peer-reviewed papers, and mentored a new generation of environmental innovators. His work has been spotlighted by CNN, the World Economic Forum, COP-16, and the American Chemical Society.