First CEO water research scholarships announced

Consulting Engineers Ontario has chosen the first two universities to participate in its scholarship program for water research.
Last year, CEO devoted $250,000 to a Water quality Research Scholarship to support university-led research in the protection and treatment of drinking water.
The scholarship program will enable up to six universities to fund a graduate student for up to two years. The research is intended to be of practical use for consulting engineers and municipalities in delivering safe drinking water, from source to tap. CEO believes it is the only scholarship of its kind in Canada.
The first scholarship has been given to fund a graduate student for a team led by Dr. Ron Hofmann at the University of Toronto, Department of Civil Engineering. The team will look into the impact of particles on the effectiveness of ultra-violet technologies to disinfect drinking water. The research will help define water quality conditions that impede ultra-violet disinfection.
The second scholarship has been given to fund a graduate researcher for a team led by Dr. Barham Gharabaghi at the University of Guelph School of Engineering. This team will develop a GIS-based decision making support system for water resources management and planning. It will provide conservation authorities and engineers with a tool to identify polluted water sources. They will also be able to use the tool to locate pollutants and select the best ways of improving water quality.
Each university will now nominate a qualified student to receive the scholarship, which has a value of up to $20,000 per year per person. The recipients will be formally announced at the Consulting Engineers of Ontario Annual Awards at the Deerhurst Inn in Huntsville on June 25.
“Better and safer drinking water quality is the goal of this scholarship program,” said Terry Hardy, P.Eng., Chair of Consulting Engineers Ontario. “CEO takes pride in being able to give back to the university community where our future water quality experts will be trained and will perform the research that can improve the quality of drinking water — our most valuable resource.”
www.ceo.on.ca