The International Desalination Association (IDA) has named the Water Corporation and Murdoch University in Western Australia as joint host agencies for its 2010 Fellowship Award Program.
The goal of the IDA Fellowship Program is to facilitate the advancement of global expertise in desalination and water reuse through the exchange of talents, knowledge and skills.
The program consists of both a monetary award, funded through the IDA Foundation, and an attachment spanning several weeks with the host agency to work on a specific project. Through this process, the IDA Fellow becomes a conduit for knowledge transfer when he or she shares their learning with their own organization, as well as with other fellow professionals through IDA’s publications or presentations at major IDA events.
Since the program’s inception in 2008, IDA has awarded three fellowships and partnered with PUB, Singapore’s national water agency, and with Saline Water Converasion Corporation (SWCC) in Saudi Arabia as host agencies.
“The Fellowship Program plays an important role in promoting education and fostering information exchange among industry professionals, two essential elements in the fulfillment of IDA’s mission. We are very pleased to have the support of the Water Corporation and Murdoch University, two of the most respected and prestigious organizations in Australia,” said Patricia Burke, secretary general of IDA.
“Both Water Corporation and Murdoch University firmly recognize that the production of potable water is one of the most important global issues of the 21st century, and that the market for large scale desalination is growing rapidly, particularly in Australia. We are pleased to collaborate with IDA to further the industry’s knowledge in this critical area,” said Sue Murphy, Water Corporation’s CEO.
The Water Corporation is at the forefront of advances in seawater desalination applications for potable water supply within Australia having undergone a rapid expansion of the use of reverse-osmosis (RO) technology in the past few years. Murdoch University is research- intensive with strong links to industry and is set to become the focal point of desalination research in Australia by hosting the new National Centre of Excellence in Desalination.
In recent years, a telling reduction in rainfall in Australia has led to widespread interest in recycling and in the large-scale adoption of membrane technologies, in the form of RO, to obtain drinking water. Thermal/evaporation processes are also in common use.
The application deadline for the 2010 Fellowship Program is April 15. Guidelines for eligibility, selection criteria and other important dates are available at www.idadesal.org . Recipients will be named at the Singapore International Water Week in June.