Past Awardees
MSA Tony Fane Award and Industry Award
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The first recipient of the MSA Tony Fane Award - Prof. Mikel Duke (left) with Prof Tony Fane and A/Prof Pierre Le-Clech (right) at the 9th International Membrane Science and Technology conference (IMSTEC) in 2016 in Adelaide.
Prof. Tony Fane and former MSA President (Prof. Hokyong Shon) with the recipients of the MSA Tony Fane Award (Prof. Huanting Wang, second from the right) and MSA Industry Award (Bruce Biltoft, third from the right) at the 10th International Membrane Science and Technology conference (IMSTEC) in 2020 in Sydney.
MSA Applied Research Award
A/Prof Colin Scholes
University of Melbourne
A/Prof Colin Scholes has developed membrane contactor technology for the efficient capture of CO2 over the previous 10 years, transitioning the research from laboratory demonstrations to achieving three successful industry-based pilot plant trials of increasing throughput. The latest pilot plant was able to capture 500 kg per day of CO2 from flue gas and achieved a competitive energy penalty compared with alternative approaches. This successful outcome was supported by collaborations with the CO2CRC, Delta Energy, GDF Suez, HRL Technologies and Furnace Engineering, representing over $2 million in funding.
MSA Collaboration Award
Dr. Zongli Xie
CSIRO
Dr Xie has worked on >20 R&D projects including Alcoa, NCED, AISRF, CleanTeQ, CSIRO-CAS, Water Decoding, NEWCO and EnrgiStream projects across many aspects of membrane science and technology. Dr Xie has established and maintained the strong collaboration with local universities such as Monash, Victoria and Deakin University ranging from joint postgraduate students program, grant application and industry engagement projects (e.g. three parties collaboration including CSIRO/VU/Newco on water recycling project, CSIRO/VU/Memcor on NCED brine concentration project, CSIRO/VU/Lianfa on textile wastewater reuse project).
MSA ECR Award
Dr. Stefan Smith
Monash University
Dr Stefan Smith currently leads the Monash Centre for Membrane Innovation as Centre Manager and is a visiting Scientist at CSIRO. Over his research career, Stefan has secured more than $400K in funding for new research equipment, published 17 papers (100% in Q1 Journals), and 1 patent on his research. Stefan has chaired several MSA Symposiums, including the MSA’s inaugural Annual Meeting, and secured more than $60,000 in funding and sponsorship to host an international symposium on Current and Future Challenges in Energy Efficient Separation (2018).
MSA Industry Engagement Award
Prof. Xiwang Zhang
Monash University
Xiwang has successfully, established the ARC Industry Transformation Research HUB for Energy-Efficient Separation in 2017, by securing strong commitments from ARC, industry partners and participating universities. As a collaboration platform, the ARC-EESep is a critical “one-stop-shop” for industry partners to work with interdisciplinary researchers to solve pressing industry problems in a collaborative environment. Also, Prof. Zhang initiated the MSA-EESep-MCMI joint webinar series in 2020, creating new communication and engagement channels during the COVID-19 pandemic.
MSA Membrane Science Award
Dr. Ludovic Dumee
Khalifa University
Dr. Ludovic DUMEE is an active membranologist focusing on the development of advanced separation and chemical conversion technologies primarily in the water and gas purification areas.
His recent focus on the impact of nano- and microplastics (NP/MPs) on wastewater treatment processes demonstrated major risks and challenges associated with the presence of such nanoscale contaminants on secondary and tertiary treatments. He also developed new analytical-level NP/MP materials and characterization technologies to be used as standards by researchers, which support proper analysis of occurrence, leading to both qualitative and quantitative dataset.
MSA Mentor Award
Prof. Sandra Kentish
University of Melbourne
Professor Kentish has supervised 32 PhD students to graduation and a further 13 postdoctoral fellows. Many of the postdoctoral fellows and PhD graduates that she has trained in membrane science have gone on to tenured academic positions or positions in industry. Her postdoctoral fellows have been awarded both Victoria Fellowships and a Fulbright Fellowship, while her PhD students have been awarded numerous conference awards for their research.
She has also offered mentoring and support to other younger members of the MSA over many years, through proof reading of grant applications, support in promotion applications, feedback on oral presentations and simple encouragement. She was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering in 2019 in part for her mentoring and support of early career engineers.
MSA Service Award
Dr. Andrea Merenda
Deakin University
Andrea has served as MSA Secretary from July 2018 to November 2020. During his tenure as MSA Secretary, Andrea has significantly contributed to key strategic initiatives, such as the engagement with members and the outreach. Specifically, Andrea has provided a strong support to the MSA Directors in growing and coordinating the communication and marketing areas, including the launch and maintenance of the new MSA website, the management of the social media network (twitter and LinkedIn) and the daily correspondence with MSA Members.
Since 2019, in addition to his responsibilities within the MSA Board, Andrea has held key positions in successful domestic and international events endorsed by the MSA, including the 2019 MSA ECR Symposium (vice-chair), IMSTEC2020 (secretary) and IMSTEC2022 (co-treasurer). Andrea also supported the organisation of the first joint MSA-Taiwan membrane society workshop held in Taiwan in June 2019.
MSA Student Award
Dr. Nawshad Akther
University of Technology Sydney
During her PhD candidature, Nawshad has published 6 papers as first author and 6 others as co-author in top ranking journals. She has demonstrated strong ability to conduct high-quality research and made original and outstanding contribution to the field of membrane science through her research outcomes. Moreover, her outstanding written and oral communication skills, both individually and as a member of a multidisciplinary team, is very evident from the 9 awards she won over the past 2 years for demonstrating her research in various showcases and conferences and winning the UTS 3MT competition in 2020. She received the UTS Collaboration Experience Award in 2019 for her research experience in Japan and the Research Excellence Commendation Award for her exceptional performance.
