Environmental engineers among top students at Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization Conference

Four students smile and stand with a University at Buffalo assistant professor as the one female student holds up a trophy she won.

From left ot right: Arvid Masud, UB environmental engineering PhD student; Brianna Scharf, senior environmental engineering UB student; Nirupam Aich, assistant professor in environmental engineering, UB; Novin Mehrabi, third year environmental engineering PhD student; and Zachary Shepard, environmental engineering student, University of Rhode Island

By Peter Murphy

Published February 12, 2019 This content is archived.

For the second consecutive year, students working with environmental engineering assistant professor Nirupam Aich earn awards at the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization (SNO) Conference.

Print

Related Links

“This is particularly important for the Great Lakes because nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus in excess can cause harmful algal bloom. ”
Nirupam Aich, Assistant Professor
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering

Two environmental engineering students, one doctoral and one undergraduate, received the SNO Student Award at the 2018 conference.

Novin Mehrabi, a PhD student, won the award based on his research focusing on the usage of nanohybrids in improving the performance of adsorbents and membranes in water reuse. Mehrabi has been at UB and a member of the Aich Laboratory of Environmental Nanotechnology and Sustainability (AichLENS) since 2017.

Brianna Scharf, an undergraduate environmental engineering student also won an SNO Student Award, and she earned third place in the SNO poster competition. Her poster described the interaction of new generation nanohybrids or nanocomposites with biological wastewater treatment system to see how these nanomaterials change their performance for removal of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater.

“This is particularly important for the Great Lakes because nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus in excess can cause harmful algal bloom,” says Aich, “The removal of these nutrients using biological treatment processes are very important where microbes, or bacteria, use them up. Nanomaterials, however, are also used in wastewater treatment, or can be found in wastewater from industry and municipal usage. The process of how they impact the wastewater treatment process is very important.”

Recipients apply for the SNO Student Award by developing a poster and submitting an application with the poster title, and a 250-word description of how they would utilize the monetary amount.

The SNO is a worldwide professional society comprised of individuals and institutes engaged in research, education, development and application of nanotechnology, and the implications it may have on health, safety and the environment.

The 2018 conference was held in San Diego California in November 2018.