8.00 AM – 8.30 AM: Registration and Meet & Greet Networking with Breakfast

8.30 AM – 8.40 AM: Welcome Remarks and Program Outline

• Atam Dhawan, Senior Vice Provost and Executive Director
• Teik Lim, President, New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Pradeep Fulay, Program Director, NSF – Accelerating Research Translation (ART) Program, Technology, Innovation and Partnership (TIP) Directorate

 8.40 AM – 9.00 AM: Distinguished Keynote Presentation: Government Agency Perspective

• Katrina Angarone, Chief Strategy Officer, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP)

The NJ DEP Distinguished Keynote presentation will focus on the leadership and priorities of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection including the PFAS advocacy, research support, and strategic initiatives in data collection, standards and policy development.

9.00 AM – 9.45 AM: Fireside Chat Session: NJ State and Industry Leaders on the Vision to Address PFAS Challenges with Innovation Ecosystems.

• Senator Linda R. Greenstein, NJ Assistant Majority Leader – Dist. 14   
• Assemblywoman Lisa Swain, NJ Assembly Appropriations Chair
• Mayor Paul Vagianos, Village of Ridgewood, NJ
• Andrew Kricun, Managing Director with Moonshot Missions and Co-Chair, Jersey Water Works Steering Committee
• Kendra Morris - Chief Executive Officer of Veolia's Regulated Water Business in North America
• Larry Gottlieb, President, ResinTech, Inc.

Moderator: Atam Dhawan

In this session, NJ State, industry and community leaders will share their vision and recent developments on increasing awareness and promoting collaborative synergy with multi-stakeholder partnerships to address PFAS contamination challenges through advocacy, technology translation and commercialization, remediation, standards, policies and regulations.

9.45 AM – 10.30 AM: Distinguished Keynote Session

• 9.45 AM -10.00 AM: Distinguished Keynote Presentation -1: PFAS and Clean Water Advocacy,
  Amy Goldsmith, NJ State Director, Clean Water Action, Clean Water Fund
• 10.00 AM – 10.15 AM: Distinguished Keynote Presentation -2: A Case Study - Richard Calbi Jr. P.E., P.P., Director of Operations – Ridgewood Water

A PFAS Conundrum – One drinking water utilities journey from finding PFOA at every single source, investing $150M in treatment improvements and preparing for what’s next.  Richard Calbi P.E, Director of Operations for Ridgewood Water will discuss the utilities PFAS challenges.  Ridgewood Water is partnering with NJIT CTR to evaluate technologies that will extend efficiencies in PFAS treatment process and detection.

• 10.15 AM – 10.30 AM: Q&A Panel with Distinguished Keynote Speakers - Moderator: Stewart Abrams, Director of Remediation Technology, Langan Engineering & Environmental Services

This distinguished keynote session will present strategic PFAS advocacy, communication and testing programs for clean water in New Jersey. CTR Workshop attendees will have an opportunity to interact with distinguished speakers to learn more about these programs for enhancing their understanding of PFAS challenges and effective strategies for clean water.

10.30 AM – 10.45 AM: Coffee Break

10.45 AM – 11.45 AM: Distinguished Panel Session: Translational Research in PFAS Decontamination Technologies – Academic Translational Research Perspective 

• Dr. Robert Laumbach, M.D., M.P.H., C.I.H., Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health and Justice, Director, Community Outreach and Engagement, Center for Environmental Exposure and Disease (CEED), Rutgers School of Public Health
• Peter Jaffe, William L. Knapp ’47 Professor of Civil Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University
• Arjun Venkatesan, Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director, Emerging Contaminants Research Laboratory (ECRL), NJIT
• Dibyendu “Dibs” Sarkar, Professor, Environmental Engineering, Founding Director, Stevens Center for Sustainability, Stevens Institute of Technology
• Michael Van Ter Sluis, Vice President – Entrepreneurship, New Jersey Innovation Institute 

Moderator: Judith Sheft, Executive Director New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology

This session will focus on key presentations on PFAS health impact and academic translational research and technology development towards commercialization. Dr. Laumbach will focus on human exposure and health outcomes, with an emphasis on ongoing studies in New Jersey. He will discuss complex challenges of multiple compounds, sources, exposure pathways, half-lives in the human body, and health outcomes. Dr. Jaffe will focus on the biodegradation of perfluporinated compounds such as PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, etc.  with a discussion on the biological process and applications as well as identification of the key gene and production of the enzyme and initial applications. Dr. Venkatesan will discuss the widespread presence of PFAS in the environment and explain why these persistent compounds are difficult to detect, capture, and destroy, highlighting the key challenges and unmet needs in the field. He will also present innovative technologies developed in his laboratory and emphasize how strategic partnerships among industry, government, and academia can accelerate commercialization and real-world implementation. Dr. Sarkar will discuss "green" technologies for remediation and removal of PFAS contamination of soil and water systems that his group has developed and patented, which adhere to the principles of circular economy. Michael van Ter Sluis will discuss how the NJII Venture Studio translates academic PFAS research into scalable, venture-backed companies, highlighting the launch of PureTrace Labs as a case study in moving high-resolution mass spectrometry innovation from the lab into real-world environmental monitoring applications. He will share lessons learned on bridging academia, industry, and policy to accelerate commercialization of PFAS detection technologies and build sustainable infrastructure for translational impact.

11.45 AM – 12.30 PM: PFAS Treatment Technologies Implementation and Regulations

Kristin Tedesco - Assistant Director, Division of Water Supply and Geoscience, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP)

Moderator: Ali Pajooman, PFAS Program Manager for New Jersey at Veolia North America

This session will review some of the major factors affecting technology considerations for PFAS treatment over the last six years with reasons for treatment with respect to health impacts. The genesis of how existing treatment technologies were selected with key takeaways will be discussed. In addition, the speakers will discuss current NJ DEP requirements, policies and regulations in the implementation of new technologies moving forward.

12.30 PM - 1.15 PM: Lunch with Experts and Networking

1.15 PM - 2.15 PM: Distinguished Panel Session: Translational Research in PFAS Decontamination Technologies – Industry Technology Translation Perspective

• Jason Hnatko, Engineer Manager for Emerging Contaminants, Allonnia
• Charles Schaefer, Director, Research and Testing Laboratory, CDM Smith
• Brent Alspach, Director of Applied Research, Arcadis
• Kenan Ozekin, Chief Research Officer, The Water Research Foundation
• Lauren Weinrich, Research Analyst, American Water

Moderator: Siavash Isazadeh, Sr. Technical. Director, Technical, Strategy & Innovation, Veolia-North America

The desire to accomplish efficacious and cost-effective destruction of PFAS in drinking water supplies has been a critical driving force for substantial investment in research and development over the past decade (including both public and private funding).  However, the barriers for successful implementation are likewise substantial, and the technology landscape is littered with languishing concepts in various stages of readiness.  Thus, technology providers must be both strategic and nimble in their commercialization efforts.  Utilities are facing immediate pressure to deliver PFAS solutions that are protective, affordable, and implementable today, while research pipelines are still developing the next generation of treatment science. For utilities, the challenge is balancing near‑term regulatory requirements including evolving state and federal expectations, with the practical realities of treatment selection, costs, and long‑term sustainability across diverse communities and systems. Presentations in this session will discuss both the challenges and potentially feasible pathways for market penetration and adoption for innovations in PFAS destruction.

2.15 PM – 3.00 PM: PFAS Communication and Advocacy

Moderator: Paula Figueroa-Vega, Director, Jersey Water Works Collaborative & Organizational Development, New Jersey Future

PFAS-related information—whether in research, treatment, regulations, or lawsuits—is often highly technical and can be challenging to understand. Regulatory guidelines are complex, making them difficult to explain, follow, and implement. The immediacy of the issue creates an urgency for next steps and timelines to follow. Bridging this information gap is crucial for decision-makers, including municipal leaders managing utility budgets and utility staff overseeing treatment processes. Policy makers play a key role in making public health decisions. Consumers also need clear information about how PFAS may affect their health and how they can protect themselves. The session will provide an overview of communication and advocacy, with an emphasis on people-centered and action-oriented messaging.

Session Agenda: 

1. Welcome: Paula Figueroa-Vega, Jersey Water Works
   • Introduction of session
   • Explain JWW PFAS and Emerging Contaminants Committee Goals and Process
2. Presentation and Discussion with Audience: Amy Goldsmith, Clean Water Action
   • Communication Messages and Advocacy
3. Q&A and Call for Action

3.00 PM – 3.30 PM: NJ PFAS-PIC Launch and Closing Remarks - Next Steps

• Siavash Isazadeh, Sr. Technical. Director, Veolia-North America
• Paige Jacob, PFAS Chemistry Program Manager, Battelle
• Paula Figueroa, Director, Jersey Water Works
• Richard Calbi Jr, Director of Operations – Ridgewood Water
• Michael Zwick, Senior Vice President Research, Rutgers University
• Nick DeNichilo, Vice Co-Chair, NJIT Board of Trustees; Former President & CEO at Mott MacDonald – North America (retired)

Moderator: Atam Dhawan

In this session, leaders from the New Jersey PFAS Partnership Innovation Consortium (NJ PFAS-PIC) member organization from industry, academic, government and community sectors will present vision and goals of the consortium promoting collaborative synergy and partnerships in addressing PFAS challenges for societal benefits.

3.30 PM – 3.45 PM: Coffee Break and Networking

3.45 PM – 5.00 PM: Industry-University-Community Showcase: Technology Innovations in PFAS Decontamination

The CTR PFAS Workshop Industry-University-Community showcase with e-posters and information exhibits will present ongoing developments and technology research, translation and/or commercialization from their labs or organizations to communities along with networking opportunities for enhancing PFAS advocacy and communication towards PFAS detection, monitoring and decontamination for societal benefits.