Bio:
Natasha Wright is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the
University of Minnesota. Her research interests include desalination, solar drying, ethnographic design interviewing, and the role of engineering in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). She was listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy (2016) and led the teams that won the USAID Desal Prize (2015) and the KidneyX Sustainability Prize (2025). Natasha received her PhD from MIT in 2018.
Sustainability through Decentralization: A Case Study in Dialysis Fluid Production
Up to 7 million people die annually from a lack of access to dialysis, the life-saving treatment for kidney failure. Dialysis is a water- and energy-intensive treatment, directly using more than 265 billion liters of water and 1.62 billion kWh of energy each year. Sustainably expanding access to dialysis requires innovative solutions. In this seminar, Prof. Natasha Wright will describe the development of technology for decentralized peritoneal dialysis fluid production aimed at increasing access to home dialysis in resource-constrained communities globally. Leveraging stakeholder insights from >200 interviews and using Life Cycle Assessment methodology, she will demonstrate the technology’s potential to reduce the direct and embodied environmental impacts of dialysis while also addressing economic and social barriers to kidney health.
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