Professor Szekely has devoted his career to the research of sustainable solutions for separation challenges, in particular separation materials and processes involving membranes. The sustainable production of chemicals, pharmaceuticals and clean water is largely impacted by the efficiency of separation processes in product supply chains. Conventional separation processes can account for as much as 80% of the total manufacturing costs, contributing approximately 10% of the world's energy consumption. In particular, his group develops sustainable separations through a combination of materials science, data science and process engineering.​