News
Kim Earns 2009 Paul L. Busch Award
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Associate Professor Jaehong Kim is the winner of the 2009 Paul L. Busch Award from the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF). This prestigious award is presented each year by the WERF Endowment for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research. Through the award, the Endowment recognizes outstanding individuals or teams whose ongoing efforts contribute significantly to water quality research and its practical application in the water environment. The annual grant of $100,000 seeks to support and promote work that will bring new benefits to the water quality community (utilities, industries, environmental firms) and the water-using public they serve. It is one of the largest awards within the water quality industry.
Dr. Kim and his research team were recognized by WERF for 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 potential benefits to existing onsite water and wastewater treatment processes, this technology 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 annually from diarrhea alone. By coating the surface of containers used for SODIS with the upconversion material, Dr. Kim hopes to drastically improve the process's efficiency and reduce the long exposure times required. He also envisions using these materials to develop antibacterial surfaces, which would prevent microbial growth when in the presence of white light. This groundbreaking technology has enormous potential in not only developing areas, but also in existing wastewater treatment facilities throughout the world.
The criteria for the Paul L. Busch award is based on the innovation of the proposal, integrity and soundness of the research, potential for application of the results, experience of the researcher, and the foresight and novelty of the work. The WERF Endowment was created to encourage technological innovation that supports the most creative advances in water quality research in an effort to improve the water environment in a sustainable manner. Additional information about WERF and the Paul L. Busch Award is available at www.werf.org/PaulLBusch.
Dr. Kim's research interests include various subjects related to physicochemical processes involved with water treatment. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Technology from the Department of Chemical Technology (currently the School of Chemical Engineering) at Seoul National University in Korea, where he also worked as an assistant researcher in the Institute of Environmental Safety. He earned his Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and joined the faculty of CEE in 2002. He is the recipient of multiple awards, including the CEE Excellence in Research Award, the Excellence in Review Award from Environmental Science & Technology magazine, the Editor's Award from ASCE's Journal of Environmental Engineering, and the 2007 CETL/BP Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award. Additionally, he is a member of the American Water Works Association, the American Chemical Society, the International Ozone Association, the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, as well as the Korean Environmental Professionals Association in America. For additional information about Dr. Kim and his research, visit http://people.ce.gatech.edu/~jkim/index.html.