Advancing Atmospheric Water Harvesting: Insights from NYU Abu Dhabi’s Award-Winning Research

We were delighted to see that NYU Abu Dhabi’s work on nature-inspired water harvesting was recently recognised as the Winner of the “Research Project of the Year: STEM” at the THE Awards Arab World 2025. The project, led by Dr. Marieh Al-Handawi and Prof. Pance Naumov, explores innovative ways to capture water from the air by learning from the UAE’s unique desert environments.

Inspired by the resilience of desert plants and animals, Dr. Al-Handawi explored the UAE’s landscapes to uncover natural strategies for surviving dry conditions. Her investigations highlighted the remarkable Tamarix aphylla tree, which produces salts capable of drawing water from the air, even at low humidity. This insight into nature’s water-harvesting strategies formed the foundation of the team’s 2023 PNAS publication, which includes detailed water vapor sorption experiments on samples of Tamarix aphylla branches with and without excreted salts present, conducted using an IGAsorp instrument. Results from the IGAsorp DVS measurements provided clear evidence for the role of the salts, with water sorption uptake increased eight-fold in comparison to branch samples with salts removed. We were pleased to provide support to Dr. Al-Handawi during the early stages of the project and to see that results obtained from the IGAsorp measurements were important to the study.

While the spotlight remains on NYUAD’s achievement, it is encouraging to see high-impact environmental research drawing upon careful, data-driven vapor sorption measurements. Innovation in areas such as atmospheric water harvesting continues to grow, and we look forward to following the team’s ongoing progress as they push this technology forward.

Reference:

M. B. Al-Handawi, P. Commins, R. E. Dinnebier, M. Abdellatief, L. Li and P. Naumov, Harvesting of aerial humidity with natural hygroscopic salt excretions, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2023, 120 (45): e23134120. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2313134120