KAUST graduate students named winners in Dow sustainability challenge

 

Saturday September 25, 2011

Thuwal, Saudi Arabia – Three King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) scholars have been named winners in the 2011 Dow Sustainability and Innovation Student Challenge.

The Dow Chemical Company, a member of the KAUST Industrial Collaboration Program (KICP), recognizes the University as a global strategic partner in sustainability research. As a result of this the University was invited to participate in the challenge.

DOW

From a pool of current graduate students, seven finalists were selected for their work in addressing significant global problems through: interdisciplinary research, innovative thinking, and alignment with the Dow 2015 Sustainability goals.

The three winners each receive cash prizes of $10,000, and will attend the Dow International Recognition Event at the University of California, Berkeley.


Winners

  • Wei Chen, Material Science and Engineering (Ph.D.), "Transforming Waste Sponges into High Performance Energy Storage Devices";
  • Dominik Jantke. Chemical Science (Ph.D.), "Efficient and Sustainable Palladium Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions in Water";
  • Craig Werner, Environmental Science and Engineering (Ph.D.), "Microbial Osmosis Cell (MOC): An integrated environmental Technology to achieve wastewater treatment, energy recovery and desalination."

The University's Graduate Affairs department organized the competition and received submissions from Master's and Ph.D. students from nine fields of study, representing all divisions.

At the awards ceremony the finalists presented their research to the audience, before holding an open poster session where they discussed their projects with judges and guests.

Judges included Dr. Mohamed E. Samaha, Senior Vice President for Economic and Technology Development, Dr. James Calvin, Vice President of Education and Dr. Nina Federoff, Distinguished Visiting Professor in Bioscience.

KAUST was one of seven international universities chosen for the challenge. Participants are selected for supporting cutting-edge sustainability research and innovation. Other participating institutions included University of Cambridge, Peking University, Sao Paulo University, Northwestern University, the University of Michigan and the University of California.