07 May MEDRC Introduce New Student Led Alumni Forum
Gaza May 7th, 2018: The first event of the newly revamped MEDRC Water Research Alumni Forum was held today in Palestine.
The Alumni Forum is a follow up initiative of the Fellowship program, designed to further facilitate support for water research by offering a platform from which current students and alumni can showcase their work, view research outputs of their peers and connect with leading experts in the water sector.
To further maximize development opportunities MEDRC have introduced a student led approach to organizing the forum, whereby students are given responsibility to propose the Forum theme, curate discussion panel topics, nominate expert participants, select moderators and manage event logistics.
The Student Steering committee was selected following a call for applications and consists of several key elected positions which were determined by the Higher Committee. The Higher Committee is chaired by the Deputy Head of the Palestinian Water Authority, Eng. Rehby Al Sheikh.
Today’s event was held under the title ‘Desalination and Treated Water Reuse, Towards Sustainable Development’ and was attended by MEDRC Center Director, Ciarán Ó Cuinn, Kirsten Winterman, Head of Development Cooperation, MEDRC and Brendan Smith, Development Cooperation Program Manager, MEDRC . Leading water experts and stakeholders were also present, with Eng. Rebhy El Skeikh, Deputy Head of the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) delivering the key note address.
The discussion panel topics included; Economics of Desalination and Water Reuse; Desalination Technologies; Wastewater Treatment and Reuse and Water and Energy Nexus. 6 of the most outstanding Alumni were selected to be given the honor to present their work as part of the Research Showcase.
Jordan based Alumni will host their Alumni Forum at the Geneva Hotel, Amman on May 10th, 2018 under the forum title ‘Integrated, Decentralized Wastewater Management for Resource Recovery in Rural and Peri-Urban Areas’.
MEDRC’s Fellowship program is delivered in partnership with water authorities in Palestine and Jordan. It offers exceptionally talented students an opportunity to pursue post graduate research at participating universities. To date the program has awarded 191 Fellowships in Palestine and Jordan with 30 more due to be awarded this year, bringing the total to 221.