The International Desalination Association has awarded its 2012 Channabasappa Memorial Scholarship to Ronan McGovern, a PhD candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.
His PhD research with Prof John H Lienhard V aims to advance the state of the art in high‑recovery desalination systems.
A native of Ireland, McGovern is using a Fulbright Science & Technology award to pursue his PhD studies in the USA. Through the development of new technology for dealing with highly saline waters, he aims to extend the fraction of water economically recoverable from waste streams.
A mechanical engineer, McGovern holds a Bachelor’s degree from University College Dublin (UCD), where he graduated at the top of his class. This degree includes one year of study at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.
In addition to his studies, McGovern worked as a particle detector design engineer at the CERN laboratory during the summer of 2009.
McGovern has travelled widely as part of his research and has an array of publications at international conferences and in peer-reviewed journals, as well being a co-assignee on a number of provisional patents relating to desalination. He is currently president of the Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers at MIT.
To be eligible for the Channabasappa Memorial Scholarship, candidates must be current members of IDA, graduated from an accredited university and be from the top 10% of their class in science or engineering. Applicants are considered on the basis of undergraduate transcripts, references and motivation for a career in desalination or water technologies.
Candidates must also exhibit leadership and achievement potential.
For further information about the program, please contact Leslie Merrill at [email protected].