Environmental engineering grad students win research awards.

Parna Mukherjee, who received a Ph.D. this year in environmental engineering, earned the first-place award in the category of graduate student  research at the 2003 North American Membrane Society (NAMS) conference held in May in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The award, which included a certificate and a cash prize, is given for oral and poster presentations. Mukherjee's paper was titled "Predicting relative electrolyte permeability in reverse osmosis processes using ion-exchange selectivity."

Prakhar Prakash, a doctoral student in environmental engineering, received the best graduate student research presentation award at the American Water Works Association-Pennsylvania (AWWA-PA) conference held in Pittsburgh in June. Prakhash's paper was titled "Use of homogeneous and heterogeneous ion exchange membranes for selective alum recovery from water-treatment plant sludges."

The two students are advised by Arup K. SenGupta, professor and department chair of civil and environmental engineering, who also co-authored both papers.