• Deadline for submissions is April 1
TOPSFIELD, MA, USA, Mar. 8, 2011 -- The International Desalination Association (IDA) announced that applications are now being accepted for its 2011 Fellowship Award Program, which will be hosted in the United States this year by the Bureau of Reclamation. The deadline for this year's applications is April 1, 2011.
The objective of the IDA Fellowship Award Program is to facilitate the advancement of global expertise in desalination and water reuse by fostering more interactions and sharing of non-confidential knowledge and non-patented technologies and processes in the desalination and water reuse industry. The program is designed to benefit not only the Fellow and host agency, but also the industry at large.
"This 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 of supporting development of and promoting the use of desalination and desalination technology globally," said Patricia A. Burke, IDA's Secretary General.
"The IDA Fellow acquires new in-depth knowledge. The host agency benefits from the IDA Fellow's experience, knowledge and exposure to best practices, which are shared with the support of the Fellow's own organization. The IDA Fellow becomes a conduit for knowledge transfer, by sharing his or her learning with their own organization, as well as with other fellow professionals through IDA's publications or presentations at major IDA events," she continued.
Launched in 2008, the Fellowship Program consists of both a monetary award of up to 10,000 USD, funded through the IDA Foundation, and an attachment planning several weeks with a host agency to work on a specific project. To be eligible for the Fellowship Award, individual applicants must be IDA members, and must possess 8-10 years of working experience in the field of desalination and/or water reuse.
Each host agency is a high-profile public utility or research organization known for its leadership in desalination and desalination technologies. Previous host agencies are PUB, Singapore's national water agency; Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) in Saudi Arabia; and Water Corporation and Murdoch University in Western Australia.
The Bureau of Reclamation is a U.S. government agency within the Department of Interior. Established in 1902, the Bureau of Reclamation is today the largest wholesaler of water in the U.S. It brings water to more than 31 million people, and provides one out of five Western farmers with irrigation water for 10 million acres of farmland that produce 60% of the nation's vegetables and 25% of its fruits and nuts.
Reclamation has been a leader in advanced water treatment for over 50 years beginning with the creation of the Office of Saline Water in 1952. A number of desalination technologies were investigated and developed, leading to many of the advancements in use today, including membranes. As early as the 1970s, Reclamation designed and later constructed a 100 mgd (downsized to 72 mgd) reverse osmosis membrane brackish desalination plant in Yuma,
Arizona.
Today, Reclamation uses funding to encourage the innovative development, application, and management of advanced water treatment technologies. Reclamation's Research and Development Office, where coordination for the application of advanced water treatment technology resides, will sponsor the IDA Fellow. Because of Reclamation's structure, advanced water treatment programs and projects are overseen by a number of offices throughout the agency. In many cases, the actual work is carried out in partnership with Reclamation by water districts, universities, private companies, non-profit institutions, federal and state entities, and others. The R&D Office will coordinate among the programs and projects to develop an agenda specific to the interests of the selected IDA Fellow.
Announcement of IDA Fellow will be made at the Singapore International Water Week. The commencement date of the attachment is dependent upon the specific project on which the IDA Fellow will work. A specific timetable will be provided once the details of the project have been confirmed.
For further details and application guidelines, please visit www.idadesal.org or contact Nancy Pagels at [email protected].
About IDA
The International Desalination Association (www.idadesal.org) is a non-profit association that serves more than 2,400 core members in 60 countries and reaches an additional 4,000 affiliate members. Its membership comprises scientists, end-users, engineers, consultants and researchers from governments, corporations and academia. IDA is associated with the United Nations as part of a growing international network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
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