The A.P. Black Research Award was established in 1967 in honor of Dr. Alvin Percy Black to recognize outstanding research contributions to water science and water supply rendered over an appreciable period of time. Dr. Gary L. Amy is the 2017 recipient of the award. He presently holds the position of Dean's Distinguished Professor in the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Science at Clemson University (Clemson, S.C.). He is also a visiting professor in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at the National University of Singapore. Amy is the former director of the Water Desalination and Reuse Center at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. Before his time at KAUST, he was professor of water supply engineering at the UNESCO‐IHE Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, where he held a joint appointment at the Technical University of Delft. He also was professor of environmental engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder and, earlier, at the University of Arizona (Tucson). Amy's main areas of expertise are drinking water treatment and wastewater reclamation/reuse, with specific expertise in membrane science and technology, selective adsorption, natural organic matter characterization, disinfection byproduct formation and control, and natural systems. Amy received his PhD degree from the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, Calif., in 1978.

Kenneth L. Mercer, editor‐in‐chief of Journal AWWA, spoke with Amy about his beginnings in water science and research, how his focus has shifted over the years through what he describes as a “path [that] has covered a logical spectrum of related topics,” his contribution to the area of disinfection byproducts, his continued international scope, his interest in translational research with industry partners, and his new research venture into the water–food nexus and saline agriculture.