Our Story

HydroSapient was formed in early 2020. At the current stage, our focus is on building core capabilities and translating academic research outcomes, along with additional internal research, into industrial productivity for the betterment of the world.


Our Team

Dr. Chaopeng Shen

Chief Science Officer

Dr. Shen's research work has pioneered the application of deep learning in hydrology. He has published ~40 peer-reviewed articles in premier journals in hydrology, and has developed both process-based and machine-learning-based hydrologic models. He has been awarded research funding from federal and industry sources, including the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Google. He led a team which was one of the 20 grantees of the Google AI Impacts Challenge award, selected from 2600 applications from around the world. Dr. Shen is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University.

Kathryn Lawson

Acting Chief Executive Officer

Kathryn has been leading engineering teams and conducting R&D for almost a decade. She specializes in multidisciplinary environmental and agricultural systems, water resources, and alternative energy. Her focus as an entrepreneur is to enhance sustainable and humanitarian efforts by leveraging innovative technology. She wants to use engineering research outcomes to create a better, more sustainable world, and believes that bringing technological innovation to the market can help society change for the better.

Kathryn has M.S. degrees in Environmental Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and in Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering from The Ohio State University, as well as a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Clarkson University. Her background includes numerous public presentations, as well as peer-reviewed publications in her fields of research. She currently supports research at Penn State alongside her work with HydroSapient.

Dr. Wenqian Shan


Dr. Shan has published 6 peer-reviewed papers, has practical process engineer experience and offers expertise in project management and progress stewarding.