UA SBRP Student Fernando Alday Receives Scholarship from Air & Waste Management Association Grand Canyon Section

UA SBRP Training Core student, Fernando Alday (advisor, Wendell P. Ela) has been awarded an $800 scholarship for “best graduate technical paper” from the Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA) Grand Canyon Section for his submission entitled: “Iron Biomineralization: Implication on the Fate of Arsenic in Landfills”. Fernando’s winning paper was a proposed research plan to develop:

• An experimental protocol to simulate reducing conditions on batches of sludge in anoxic conditions in order to understand why arsenic-bearing water treatment residuals readily release their arsenic after landfill disposal
• A set of column experiments under anaerobic conditions that will be loaded with iron hydroxide and with the bacteria: Geobacter metallireducens obtained from a real anaerobic digested sludge.

In addition to the scholarship, Fernando received an AWMA International and local Grand Canyon section student membership.

The AWMA’s goals are to strengthen the environmental profession, expand scientific and technological responses to environmental concerns, and assist professionals in critical environmental decision-making to benefit society.  More specifically, their scholarship program aids and encourages students who plan to enter the field of air and waste management or a related environmental field.

Please join the UA SBRP in congratulating Fernando, not only for this impressive award, but also for his technical merit.