IDA Fellowship winners from Iran and Japan

This year’s winners of the International Desalination Association’s Fellowship awards come from Iran and Japan, IDA announced on 27 April 2009.

Kourosh Mohammadi, associate professor and head of the Department of Environmental Engineering at the Water Engineering Institute, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, and Hiroshi Iwahori, senior consultant at the Membrane Division of Nitto Denko Corporation in Shiga, Japan, will both be attached for 6-8 weeks to the Saline Water Conversion Corporation in Saudi Arabia. SWCC is the host agency for the 2009 award.

IDA established the Fellowship award in 2008 to facilitate the advancement of global expertise in desalination and water reuse through the exchange of talents, knowledge and skills.

Mohammadi, in addition to his teaching and research activities, has carried out several projects, including brine discharge of reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination systems and development of standard guidelines on groundwater quality monitoring, design and selection of drainage materials and the effects of agricultural activities on groundwater quantity and quality. Since 2007, he has been a member of the Desalination Committee, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Energy, which is responsible for water management in Iran.

Iwahori helped Nitto Denko develop a tubular type CA membrane for a commercial RO project and became involved in development of RO/ultrafiltration applications such as reclamation of sewage and industrial wastewater using membrane treatment. He has been a director of the Japan Desalination Association since 2003 and was acting president of the Association of Membrane Separation Technology of Japan from 2005-2008.

Applications are now being accepted for IDA’s 2010 program. The deadline is 15 February 2010, and those interested should contact Nancy Pagels at npagels@idadesal.org.