Two students honored at membrane conference

Students from Illinois and British Columbia were each awarded $1,500 best-paper prizes at the conclusion of the AWWA Membrane Technology Conference in Tampa, Fla., last week.

Colleen Chan (left) and Orlando Coronell

Colleen Chan, from the University of British Columbia, was recognized for a paper entitled “Shear Stress at Radial Positions of a Submerged Hollow Fiber Under Gas Sparging, and the Effects of Physical Contact Between Fibers on Shear Profiles.” Her advisor is Dr. Pierre Berube

Orlando Coronell, from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, received the prize for a paper entitled “Quantification of Functional Groups in the Active Layer of Nanofiltration (NF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) Membranes.” His advisor is Dr. Benito J. Marinas

The two prizes and plaques were awarded at a ceremony directly after the conclusion of the technical sessions at the Membrane Technology Conference07. The $1,500 prize each student received is a significant increase from the $1,000 awarded in 2005, the first time the competition was held at this biennial event.

Student papers are rated prior to the conference, and judges (primarily members of the MTC07 planning committee) attend the contestants’ presentations at the conference before making the final decision, based on both the quality of the paper and the presentation. While poster presentations also are eligible, both of this year’s awardees gave oral presentations.

Posted: 03/27/2007 http://www.awwa.org/publications