The John P. McNulty Prize, which honors bold leaders who use their talents and resources to tackle the world’s most pressing issues, is being awarded to Cody Friesen, an associate professor at Arizona State University and founder and CEO of SOURCE Global. 

The company employs innovative technology that uses water vapor in the air to produce high quality drinking water almost anywhere on the planet, even in remote areas. SOURCE Global uses hydropanel technology to bring clean drinking water to people in more than 50 countries. SOURCE founder and CEO Cody Friesen, an associate professor at Arizona State University, is being awarded the McNulty Prize for his work making potable water accessible around the world. Photo courtesy SOURCE Global Download Full Image

The first ASU faculty member or alumnus to win the prize, Friesen is striving to realize his vision for ending the potable water scarcity faced by much of the world’s population.

“At least 2.4 billion people on planet Earth don’t have clean water to drink, but giving communities worldwide water ownership, access and security is possible, and SOURCE is committed to perfect water for every person, every place,” says Friesen, who teaches materials science and engineering in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of the seven schools in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU. Friesen is also a senior global futures scientist at ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory.

The McNulty Prize, awarded in partnership with the Aspen Insitute, is bestowed on leaders to recognize their “moral courage, vision for change, and track record of bold and lasting impact.” Each winner receives $150,000 and institutional support to advance their mission.

SOURCE Global has already used its hydropanel technology to bring clean drinking water to people in more than 50 countries, particularly in remote, Indigenous and other historically underserved communities. It innovatively uses energy from the sun to transform water vapor in the air into high quality drinking water, with no need for external electrical or liquid water inputs.

The impact of water ownership on communities is vast. According to UNICEF, women and girls around the globe spend a collective 200 million hours a day gathering water, almost exclusively from nonpotable sources.

This gathered water is expensive not only because of its troubling sociological impact, but in monetary terms as well. Friesen says that water ends up being more than 100 times more expensive than the potable water that’s flushed down the toilet in a typical U.S. city. The disparity is due to that economic loss, and to costs incurred by governments to deal with outbreaks of diarrheal disease caused by the water.

Access to water via SOURCE Global’s technology enables women and girls to spend their days going to school or work.

The company often employs local community members to install and maintain the panels. The drinking water generated from solar-powered hydropanels can make bottled water obsolete, benefiting communities economically and environmentally.

Friesen says that in 2021 alone, SOURCE water offset the use of more than 3.6 million plastic water bottles. He views the efforts to achieve such a vast impact as an extension of his academic work at ASU.

“When I think of what academia is about in the broadest sense, two primary functions come to mind: one, the creation of new knowledge, and two, the transfer of knowledge,” Friesen says. “Historically, the former meant research with the end goal of peer-reviewed publication and the latter meant teaching with the end goal of students graduating and carrying that knowledge into society.

“However, when I first arrived at ASU as junior faculty in 2004, President Michael Crow was articulating an additional framing of academia: the role of translational research, research that directly translates into the field to solve real-world problems, and how it would not only transform ASU but also the balance of academia and its relevance to society."

Hence, Friesen’s research group is highly translationally-oriented. It prioritizes the creation of new knowledge in the realm of materials science and renewable energy that targets and directly engages in global-scale challenges. The group ensures its basic and applied research is patented and moved into startup companies where it can ultimately be fielded in a way that addresses the problems on which the group focuses.

“Knowing that access to safe drinking water is perhaps humanity’s greatest challenge, we recognized that there is an immense amount of water vapor in the lower atmosphere, and that with sunlight as an energy source, it is theoretically possible to create a renewable, distributed approach to drinking water,” Friesen says.

That research has now resulted in the granting of 13 patents, more than 100 patent applications and the SOURCE Hydropanel. In 2019, the research group was also recognized with the Lemelson-MIT award, the largest monetary prize for inventors in the United States.

“We’re still just at the beginning. There are meaningful opportunities to advance the materials we use and the thermodynamic efficiency in ways that will make the technology even more productive,” Friesen says. “Ultimately, the goal of this work is to democratize access to drinking water and deliver water equity for all humans. We’re just getting started.”

National Substance Abuse Prevention Month, observed in October, brings awareness to substance abuse and prevention efforts.

In the past year, more than 59.3 million people age 12 or older used illicit drugs. Moreover, the use of illicit substances interferes with brain receptors and the way they process information. Once that change happens, it’s difficult to change what was altered.  Shannon Eaton Download Full Image

But how do drugs affect our decision-making?

Shannon Eaton, a lecturer in The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University, teaches psychology and neuroscience courses at ASU Online. ASU News spoke to Eaton to learn more about the effect of drugs on the brain and how we can provide support to those who are experiencing substance abuse.

Question: Tell us about the neurological changes a person experiences when they abuse drugs.

Answer: Different drugs of abuse have many different effects. Most drugs of abuse have some interaction with the dopaminergic system — the system that is responsible for our goal-directed activities. Changes to this system can alter the desire to use drugs and make it difficult to stop.

Additionally, some drugs can cause lasting neurotoxic effects. We may see fewer neural connections, a reduced number of neurons and changes to typical neural functioning. This can impact attention, the ability to plan and the ability to make decisions.

Using drugs frequently also can result in forming associations with various drug-related cues. This learning process changes how the brain is wired and may cause increased activation of drug-related cues and environments resulting in a craving for the substance.

Q: In your course Your Brain on Drugs, you discuss how drugs influence neuron communication and human behavior. How does drug use affect that communication and human behavior? 

A: Generally we can think of our body as wanting to maintain what is “normal” for a human body. When we get too hot, we sweat to cool down and help maintain a normal temperature. Our brain acts in a similar manner. 

If we take drugs that increase signaling, our body tends to compensate by reducing the number of receptors that detect that signal, and if we take drugs that decrease signaling, our body compensates by increasing the number of receptors that detect that signal. 

Many drugs of abuse have some interaction with the parts of our brain responsible for pleasure. If we overstimulate these areas, our body will start to compensate and turn down these signals.

Q: What happens when our bodies turn down these signals?

A: The turning down of these signals makes it very difficult to stop consuming the drug. If your body compensates and reduces the number of receptors that are responsible for feeling pleasure, then something that once brought pleasure might not bring a person as much pleasure anymore.

Q: That being said, you discuss motivation and liking. What’s the difference, and how do they play a role in drug consumption?

A: We have many more parts of our brain involved in motivation and only a couple small areas that are strictly devoted to liking.  

Liking we can think of as pleasure, or hedonic value of something; the opposite would be aversion. We tend to enjoy things that bring us pleasure and will seek them out, and we tend to avoid things that are aversive. Motivation can be thought of as wanting instead of liking. It is the driving force to seek out what brings us pleasure. 

Most people start using drugs because they make them feel good, they give the user some pleasure. However, as someone continues using, their body compensates (turns down the signals) and they no longer get the same level of pleasure from using their drug — their liking decreases — but they are still highly motivated to continue use.

Many users report a decrease in liking over time but an increase in motivation to use. Many people continue to use not for the pleasure they get from the drug but because using helps them “feel normal.”

Q: Do the biological differences between men and women change the way individuals metabolize drugs? Are the neurological changes different?

A: The biological sex differences can affect how drugs are metabolized, as well as other drug effects. 

If we look at alcohol, males have more of the enzyme that metabolizes alcohol in their stomach lining. So even when controlling for body composition differences, a male will start metabolizing alcohol sooner than a female, resulting in higher blood alcohol levels in women and different subjective effects when they consume the same amount. 

Women are also more likely to experience varied subjective effects of some drugs based on their menstrual cycle. There are increased reports of drug liking prior to ovulation in women. 

When we look at differences in neural structures in individuals with substance use disorder, both males and females had less gray matter (fewer neurons) compared to controls, but the regions where these effects are observed may differ between males and females. Men tend to have more dopamine release in areas associated with reward compared to women following the administration of drugs.

Historically, both in the U.S. and worldwide, men have had higher rates of substance use and substance use disorders.

Q: You touched upon interesting research regarding prevalence rates between men and women. What do those look like now in comparison to previous years?

A: If we take alcohol as an example, approximately 100 years ago, men were three times more likely to have problematic alcohol use than women. Recently, that gender gap has been getting smaller and smaller, and now men are only about 1.2 times more likely to have problematic alcohol use, indicating that women have been increasing their use of alcohol more recently. This increase may be due to a number of different factors such as changing gender roles and delays in childbirth and child-rearing.

We also see gender differences in the progression of substance use disorder (SUD). Even though males are more likely to use and to have an SUD, females go through “telescoping” — they progress from first use to dependence and addiction at a faster pace than males.

Q: If someone has substance use disorder, what is the best way we can help or support them? 

A: I believe that individuals that have an SUD are often not treated with empathy. It can be very hard to watch someone you care about do things that we can see are hurting them and those around them. However, many people with SUD become isolated and may not have anywhere to turn when they decide it is time to get help.

• Be there for someone who needs it. Not enabling them, but being understanding can go a long way. 

• Not taking it personally if you reach out to help but the person isn't ready.

It is also important to keep in mind that SUDs are often a lifetime struggle. Being there for someone as they struggle can be difficult for everyone involved, but having consistency and a person they can turn to for help can be the difference in someone seeking help when they need it. 

If you or someone you know has a substance use disorder, you can contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline. SAMHSA’s helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service available in English and Spanish.