The American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA) and National Water Research Institute (NWRI) announced the 2018 AMTA-NWRI Fellowship for Membrane Technology has been awarded to doctoral students Michael Geitner of Pennsylvania State University and Cassandra Porter of Yale University. The fellowship provides $10,000 (USD) a year for two years to support graduate student research that pertains to NWRI’s objectives to improve water quality, protect public health and the environment, and create safe, new sources of water, as well as AMTA’s mission to solve water supply and quality issues through the widespread application of membrane technology. Both recipients are conducting research on novel membrane technologies.
Geitner, a first-year doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University, is evaluating bioinspired hypochlorite-resistant RO membranes under the supervision of Dr. Manish Kumar, Associate Professor Departments of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Kumar also was an AMTA-NWRI Fellow (from 2007-2009). Porter is a second-year doctoral student at Yale University. She is developing ion-rejecting membranes with polyelectrolytic layers produced through surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization under the supervision of Dr. Menachem Elimelech, who is the Roberto C. Goizueta Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering.
Both fellows will attend the Membrane Technology Conference and Exposition in March 2019 in New Orleans, LA, to present their research and receive recognition of their fellowship awards. This conference is administered jointly by AMTA and the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and is designed to showcase new directions in water and wastewater treatment technologies, desalting and membrane bioreactor applications.