Friday 18 / October / 2024
Muscat: MEDRC Water Research announced the winners of the ‘Young Omani Water Researchers Award 2019’ at an official ceremony held at their headquarters in Al Hail today.
Established by MEDRC and sponsored by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Oman, Omar Zawawi Establishment LLC and Haya Water, the awards aim to celebrate the world class water research undertaken by young Omani students at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level at universities both in Oman and abroad.
Held under the auspices of the Public Authority for Electricity & Water (PAEW) of Oman, the MEDRC initiative seeks to encourage and promote water research that can contribute positively to Oman’s water sector in four key areas; water management, water treatment technologies, desalination and related environmental research.
MEDRC Center Director, Ciarán Ó Cuinn said “MEDRC continues to be amazed by the standard of submissions received each year for this award. Since 2017 and through the continued support of our partners, this initiative celebrates young Omani researchers who are working to achieve scientific breakthroughs and advancements needed to respond to the global challenge of fresh water scarcity”
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Winners
Faisal Al Marzouqi, a PhD student at Sultan Qaboos University claimed the top prize in the postgraduate category for his work treating pharmaceutical wastewater contaminated by bisphenol (BPA). The winner in the undergraduate category, Mouza Al Ruqaishy — also from Sultan Qaboos University — was awarded for her research on wastewater produced from textile manufacturing. Wafa Al Maamari from the National University of Science and Technology won the special prize for wastewater research (sponsored by Haya Water) for her study which investigated the potential of recovering materials from end-of-life tyres and reusing them to treat wastewater mainly from heavy metals.
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Speaking at the award ceremony, Her Excellency Laetitia van Asch, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Netherlands to Oman, said, “With the annual Young Omani Water Researchers Award, a new generation of solutions is emerging. We all know that in the future water, and clean water, will be more precious than ever. So, we must encourage and support students and researchers to find creative and innovative solutions for these challenges which we all face.”
Wastewater was by far the most popular area of focus shown by researchers competing for this year’s Young Omani Water Researchers Award.
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Speaking as to why they chose to co-sponsor the award, CEO of Haya Water, Eng. Hussain AbdulHussain said, “Haya Water strongly believes in Research and Development and would like to thank MEDRC for this excellent annual initiative. We are very excited to have joined the list of supporting partners this year by sponsoring a special prize for the best Wastewater research project. Off course the papers which are submitted related to Haya Water will be considered by Haya Water for its operations. We look forward to this program continuing for many years to come and wish it every future success”.
Among the distinguished guests present at Wednesday’s ceremony were H.E. Laetitia Van Asch, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; Sulaiman Al Qasmi, General Manager of Asset Division at Haya Water; Salem Nasser Al Bortmany, Executive Director of Areej Vegetable Oils and Derivatives SAOC (OMZEST group); Mohamed Al Shidhani, Director of Planning and Studies Directorate, Sultan Qaboos Higher Center for Culture and Science - Diwan of Royal Court and Dr Suleiman Al Toobi from EJAAD.
