Wed, 04/24/2019 - 13:01

BOSTON – The International Desalination Association (IDA) has awarded its Channabasappa Memorial Scholarship to Mr. Enzo Rene García-Bartolomei of Chile for the 2019/2020 academic year. The Institute of Seawater Desalination and Multipurpose Utilization (ISDMU), SOA (Tianjin, China), is co-sponsoring the 2019/2020 scholarship through a matching contribution to the IDA Sustainable Water Resources Foundation (SWRF), which will issue a $5,000 USD matching grant. This makes the total scholarship value $10,000. “IDA is proud to present this award to Mr. García. One of IDA’s important initiatives is to support education and advanced training in the field of desalination and water reuse, which will become increasingly important in helping our world address critical issues surrounding water scarcity. We thank ISDMU China for its generous support to the IDA SWRF in providing a matching contribution to support this year’s scholarship program, and we encourage other businesses and organizations to follow their lead,” said Ms. Shannon McCarthy, IDA’s Secretary General. A marine ecologist, García holds a B.S. in Ecology, and has eight years of working experience. He is now in his second year of doctoral studies, majoring in Inland Aquatic Systems, at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences of the University of Concepción, one of the most prestigious environmental science programs in Chile and the LATAM region. García has a long interest in water sustainability. He is a native of Antofagasta, Chile, which is located on the coast of the Atacama Desert, and as a teenager, he witnessed the construction and operation of the first industrial seawater desalination plant in the country. In 2015, during his scientific career, he was the leading researcher of a project entitled “Development of Biotechnological Tools for the Monitoring of Marine Systems under the Influence of Desalination Industry’s Brine Discharge,” financed by the Escondida Water Supply desalination plant. In 2017, he began his doctoral studies after receiving a scholarship from the National Commission of Science and Technology (CONICYT). In 2018, as part of a project called BloomAlert (www.bloomalert.com), he started development of an early warning tool to facilitate management plans for desalination plants during algal blooms. The topic for his doctoral thesis is “Multidisciplinary Environmental Approach to the Sustainable Management of Seawater Desalination Effluents.” Its main objective is to develop a multi-disciplinary brine management strategy based on ecotoxicological, territorial and normative research.