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For Immediate Release: October 13, 2009

For more information, contact:
Laurie Kusek, Director of Communications
Office: 703-684-2470 x7908
lkusek@werf.org

WERF Presents 9th Annual Paul L. Busch Award to Jaehong Kim

Alexandria, VA – The Water Environment Research Foundation’s Endowment for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research presented its Paul L. Busch Award to Jaehong Kim, Ph.D., today, during its annual subscriber luncheon at WEFTEC.09 in Orlando, FL. This $100,000 award will support Kim’s efforts to develop a new technology that harnesses the limitless power of sunlight in order to improve onsite water and wastewater treatment systems.

Dr. Kim is an associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he and his research team are adapting materials originally developed for laser optics, called upconversion phosphors, to create a cost-effective coating that converts sunlight into germicidal UV radiation.

In addition to the benefits the technology could provide to existing onsite water and wastewater treatment processes, it could also improve the drinking water process of sunlight disinfection (SODIS), which has been a true lifesaver in developing countries. Each year, the lack of infrastructure in developing nations hinders the availability of pathogen-free water, resulting in 1.8 million deaths per year from diarrhea alone. By coating the surface of the containers used for SODIS with the upconversion material, Kim hopes to drastically improve the process’s efficiency and reduce the long exposure times required. Kim also envisions using these materials to develop antibacterial surfaces, which would prevent microbial growth when in the presence of white light.

Kim joined Georgia Tech in 2002 and is a recipient of various awards, including the Excellence in Research Award by the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech, the Excellence in Review Award from Environmental Science & Technology magazine, and the Editor’s Award from ASCE’s Journal of Environmental Engineering.

Kim is also an active teacher and mentor. In recognition of his devotion to teaching, he received the CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award from Georgia Tech in 2007.
The annual Paul L. Busch Award is one of the largest in the water quality industry. Now in its ninth year, the award supports researchers imbued with the visionary spirit of its namesake, a leader in the water quality community who challenged engineers and scientists to devise new technologies and solutions for addressing ongoing water quality issues.

Recent recipients are already addressing many of the growing concerns of today’s communities, such as maintaining healthy waters and improving energy efficiency. Past awards are supporting groundbreaking research on the effective removal of endocrine disrupting compounds in waste streams, the creation of self-sustaining wastewater treatment facilities by using microbial fuel cells, and the fate of nanomaterials in wastewater treatment systems.

The WERF Endowment for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research presents the Paul L. Busch Award each year at WEFTEC, the Water Environment Federation’s technical exhibition and conference. More information on the Paul L. Busch Award, as well as the application process, is online at www.werf.org/PaulLBusch.

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The Water Environment Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization formed in 1989, is America's leading independent scientific research organization dedicated to wastewater and stormwater issues.