Richard Stover, Chief Technical Officer of Energy Recovery, Inc.(ERI). He was born on December 15, 1962 in Ravenna, Ohio and raised in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. He has been married since 1996 with 2 children. Dr. Stover’s numerous publications and achievements have earned him international recognition as an expert in energy recovery and process optimization in reverse osmosis systems. He holds responsibility for technical product-support services, strategic positioning of PX® technology, and managing and expanding ERI’s intellectual property holdings. In addition, in his current role as Vice President of Sales, he is responsible for strategic growth and risk management.

More About Richard Srover

Richard Stover graduated with Ph.D. He studied chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin 1983 – 1986 and graduated with bachelor’s degree. He also studied chemical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley 1991 – 1996. He had a dissertation entitled "Bubble Dynamics in Electrolytic Gas Evolution” (Electrochemical Engineering) with Charles Tobias and Morton Denn. He devised an optical-laser technique to record fluid dynamics during hydrolysis. He experimented with surface tension, viscosity, electrode polarity, and bubble size. He simulated experiments with a finite-difference fluid-flow model.

In 1990 - 1991, he travelled 10,000 miles by bicycle in Southern Europe.

He used to work for 3M Company in Minnesota 1986 - 1990 as a process and chemical engineer whose responsible for product delivery, reliability, and production at a videotape manufacturing facility. He used design-of-experiments and response-surface analysis to optimize process settings and chemical formulations. He also applied statistical process control to optimize product quality and reduce waste.

Richard also worked for IBM Corporation in San Jose from 1996 – 1998 as a process development engineer. He led a manufacturing engineering team in developing and implementing a process for reducing friction and contamination in advanced computer hard drives. He discovered, demonstrated, and patented a hard-drive component design feature to increase product reliability.

In 1998 – 2002, he worked for LFR Levine Fricke in Emeryville California as a chemical engineering and environmental consultant. He designed and implemented wastewater treatment plants using chemical, electrolytic or membrane separation processes. Ran pilot studies, supervised construction for all trades, conducted startup, and provided training and operations and maintenance support.

Richard Stover joined ERI in 2002 to develop and launch the PX-220, which has since become the leading energy recovery device in seawater desalination.  

Award
Dr. Stover was a co-recipient of the European Desalination Society’s 2006 Sidney Loeb award for outstanding innovation.