The NEBRA Research Committee hosted another successful virtual Student Poster Contest on November 5th. The Judges also got a lot out of it, learning about the latest-greatest biosolids research going on at universities around the country. Because of the virtual format, the contest even drew in a multi-disciplinary group of students from Ain Shams University’s Egypt Solid Waste Management Center of Excellence in Cairo, who are studying better ways of managing biosolids through anaerobic digestion.

And the winners of the 2024 NEBRA Student Poster Contest were:

First Prize ($1,000)

Student: Jianan Feng, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States

Research Project: Hydrothermal Systems for Wastewater Solids Management: A Path to PFAS Destruction and Wastewater Sector Decarbonization

Second Prize ($500)

Student: Simin Moavenzadeh, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, United States

Research Project: Partitioning of Per- and Polyuoroalkyl Substances in the Soil Horizon Impacted by PFAS-Laden Biosolids

Third Prize ($250)

Presentation/Discussion of Proposed Changes to Membership Categories and DuesUniversity, Lubbock, Texas, United States

Research Project: Environmental Transport of per- polyuoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from Biosolid-Amended Soils

The Poster Contest recording available on the Research Committee’s webpage: Research Committee — NEBRA. The Committee surveyed the students after the contest, got some great feedback, and intend to make further improvements for next year’s NEBRA Student Poster Contest.