Message from the Chair
Since the launch earlier this year, the MSA’s activities are gathering pace and we are working toward now the vision for which the society was established. In this newsletter, we have great news for our student membrane researchers. At the AMS5 conference in July, Ludovic Dumee from CSIRO and Victoria University and Leonora Velleman from Flinders University were the recipients of the MSA-ASM5 Travel Award with thanks to Millipore for the sponsorship. At AMS5, Ludovic and Leonora also received awards for their outstanding poster presentations. Congratulations also to Cameron Shearer from Flinders University for receiving his poster presentation award at Euromembrane last September.
I had the pleasure of attending Euromembrane, which attracted over 600 delegates from around the world. While there, I was invited to the European Membrane Society’s general assembly. The EMS are very supportive of the formation of the MSA and we look forward to building ties between our respective societies.
The first MSA sponsored event was initiated with a talk by Professor Raphael Semiat from the Technion in Israel on “Energy Issues in Desalination Processes”. Prof Semiat’s long experience in desalination systems was well received, and lead to good discussions on major issues in this current climate. We will make available his presentation and audio recording with supplementary material available on the website to download. We hope to see more MSA sponsored talks in the future from distinguished people in membranes.
Next year the MSA will be actively involved in two key events. This first one in February is the First MSA Student Symposium 2010. This is looking to be an exciting event where students can present their work and meet others active in membrane technology. The second event in November is the 6th Conference of the Aseanian Membrane Society in conjunction with Australia’s International Conference on Membrane Science and Technology (IMSTEC10).
MSA’s activities have been growing fast since its formation, reflecting the importance of membranes to research and industry. Our next key activity to be organised is the Annual General Meeting for which we should be calling soon for nominations to the board. Keep watch for this and the other events so you can take part of our active membrane community.
Associate Professor Mikel Duke - Chair of the Inaugural Board
MSA-AMS5 Travel Awards Sponsored by Millipore Australia
The Membrane Society of Australasia (MSA) recently provided two travel awards for postgraduate students to cover the cost of registration and accommodation at the Aseanian Membrane Society Conference in Kobe, Japan July 12-14th. Each award was valued at A$500, with sponsorship provided by Millipore Australia. The successful award recipients are pictured below receiving their awards from Associate Professor Mikel Duke (MSA Chair) and Professor Sandra Kentish (MSA Board Member).
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Ludovic Dumée, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering and Victoria University - Institute for Sustainability and Innovation with an abstract title of ‘Carbon nanotube based membranes for water desalination by membrane distillation’
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Leonora Velleman, Flinders University, with an abstract title of ‘Characterisation of Functionalised Gold Nanotube Membranes for Molecular Separations’.
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Both gave presentations at the conference, which was well attended by MSA members in general. Commendations were also given to the following recipients, who were ranked very highly by the judges, but were unfortunately unable to attend the conference:
Ebrahim Negaresh, The University of New South Wales with an abstract title of ‘Identification and evaluation of low carbon footprint membranes processes for complex water recycling applications’
Mojgan Bassandeh, The University of New South Wales, with an abstract title of ‘Adaption of Innovative Water Quality and Surface Analytical Technologies to Diagnose Molecular Structure of Fouling Of Membrane and Sorptive Separation Process’
We look forward to providing similar travel awards in 2010 for students to attend the AMS6-IMSTEC10 conference, which will be held in Sydney, 22nd-26th November.
Professor Sandra Kentish, University of Melbourne
New Editor-in-Chief for Membrane Water Treatment Journal
The Membrane Water Treatment journal is proud to announce that Professor Enrico Drioli (National Research Council - Institute on Membrane Technology (ITM-CNR) c/o The University of Calabria) has kindly accepted to be the Editor-in-Chief (Europe). Now, the editorial body for the new journal MWT is constituted with 3 editors-in-chief, one managing editor and 37 editorial board members (including Dr Pierre Le Clech, MSA Board Member). Membrane Water Treatment is a new journal and information regarding submission of manuscripts and subscriptions can be found at http://technopress.kaist.ac.kr/?journal=mwt.
Corporate Member Spotlight
This edition of the newsletter spotlights two of our corporate members, Dow Water and Process Solutions, and Hydranautics. The MSA is grateful for the support of our Corporate Members, especially as bridging the gap between membrane research and industrial applications is one of the key aims of the society. We look forward to their continued support, and welcome any additional companies who would like to apply for corporate membership.
Dow Water and Process Solutions
Dow Water & Process Solutions, a division of The Dow Chemical Company, introduces its newest ultrafiltration module, the DOW Ultrafiltration SFP-2880. The SFP-2880 offers 50 percent more membrane active area while decreasing the required system footprint by 30 percent. Created for larger system designs, the DOW Ultrafiltration SFP-2880 is an ideal choice for a variety of treatment applications such as groundwater, surface water, seawater, industrial wastewaters and tertiary treatment. For more information visit www.dowwatersolutions.com.
Hydranautics - a Nitto Denko Company
Founded in 1963, Hydranautics entered the reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment field in 1970: since then a consistent and focused commitment to the highest standards of research, product excellence and customer satisfaction has earned Hydranautics ISO 9001 Quality System Certification and a firm position as the technology leader in the membrane separations industry. Hydranautics manufactures a wide range of osmosis, nanofiltration and Ultrafiltration products; offering both spiral and capillary products in a wide range of diameters and lengths for a variety of applications.
SWC6 MAX is our latest innovation which has evolved from the proven track record of the SWC5 membrane. Hydranautics has a long history of providing state-of-the-art membrane technology for the most advanced and challenging applications. To date our seawater products are producing over 2.7 million m3/day of fresh water. The most recent of these seawater plants are using our latest high performance technology, including the high flux/high rejection SWC5 membrane. An independent study by the Affordable Desalination Collaboration found that the SWC5 element had the best combination of high flow and high rejection. This collaboration between all major suppliers of desalination technology, determined that the Hydranautics SWC5 element had the second highest flow, and the lowest salt passage of all competitor products tested. For futher information visit www.membranes.com.
First MSA Student Symposium
The First MSA student symposium, organized by students, will be held at the University of Wollongong from the 18th to 20th of February 2010. To make the conference attractive for all membrane/advanced materials students we have chosen the theme: Addressing Issues in Energy, Food, and Water – Membrane Applications and Advanced Materials.
Apart from the exciting theme, students and potential guest speakers will be enticed by the conference location which is almost on the beach at the brand new Innovation Campus, pictured below.
The symposium is open to international students as we are hoping to attract those attending ICONN2010, which commences two days after. Oral and poster presentations will be presented by the students and workshops will be held by industry and academia candidates. Sponsors, invited speakers and programme are yet to be confirmed.
Abstract submissions are now open and will close on the 31st of October. Please inform any students who might be interested that this is a student symposium not to be missed!
Dr Aaron Thornton - Symposium Chair
Further details can be found at the Symposium website: http://www.membrane-australasia.org/symposium2010/
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