Webinar: 2021 SS, New South Wales, Water by Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)

Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)

About This Webinar

The University of Sydney, University of New South Wales and the University of Newcastle student societies warmly welcome you to join them for this session on water.

Chemical engineers are in an ideal position to develop solutions for some of today’s most important problems, such as providing food, potable water, goods, and energy to a growing population.

Satisfying these needs via conventional methods would be impossible and potentially disastrous for the planet.

Significant advances are needed to improve productivity and yield of crops, reduce environmental contamination, improve energy and water stewardship, and more.

In this session we will ask our industry professionals their thoughts on such questions like:

- will limited access to water continue to drive technology advancements for purification, desalination, and recycle capabilities

Agenda

18:00-18:05 AEST Welcome and introduction
18:05-18:25 AEST Keynote speaker - Plato Malozemoff Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of California at Berkeley
18:25-19:15 AEST Lightening talks - Professor Rita Henderson, Lalitha Parthasarathy, Steve Adamthwaithe, Chris Skellern, Gavin Van Tonder, Mitchell Farlow
19:15-19:45 AEST Panel discussion

Presenters

Fiona O'Connor

Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)

Zachary Tooley

President, Newcastle University Chemical Engineering Society

Mitchell Farlow

Goldenfields

David Sediak

Plato Malozemoff Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of California at Berkeley

David is the Plato Malozemoff Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley where he is the Co-Director of the Berkeley Water Center and Deputy Director of the NSF engineering research center for Reinventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure (ReNUWIt).

David is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and recipient of numerous awards including the Paul Busch Award for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research and the Clarke Prize for Excellence in Water Research. He is also the author of “Water 4.0: The Past, Present and Future of the World’s Most Vital Resource”.

Associate Professor Rita Henderson

Senior Lecturer, School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales

Associate Professor Rita Henderson is an academic in the School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW. She joined the School as a Senior Lecturer towards the end of 2013 after spending 6 years with the UNSW Water Research Centre in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Rita works in both teaching (40%) and research (40%) where her interests are in water supply and biotechnology.

Rita leads the Algae & Organic Matter Laboratory, which is affiliated with the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology and is Program Leader of the Nuisance and Harmful Algae Science Practice Partnership. Rita is also a Member of the International Water Association (IWA), the Australian Water Association (AWA) and a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC). Rita is the Editor in Chief of the IWA's new H2Open Journal.

Gavin Van Tonda

Head of Water, NEOM

Gavin is Head of NEOM’s Water sector. He is responsible for developing a greenfield water infrastructure, implementing leading-edge, high-recovery desalination and brine-effluent treatment technologies for zero liquid discharge in a sustainable manner. In addition, he is leading plans for the creation of a smart water distribution and transmission network.

Gavin has 20 years of industry experience, holding senior positions with water utilities and companies around the globe, providing innovative solutions, systems and products to enhance their performance and efficiency.

Gavin started his career as a chemical process engineer at Sasol before joining Schlumberger oilfield services where he worked in seven countries around the world and completed a Reservoir Engineering course.

Prior to joining NEOM, Gavin worked at Itron, one of the world’s largest suppliers of standard and smart water technologies and systems, where he started in the water industry in 2001 as Asia Pacific Vice President. In 2010, he was transferred to Itron HQ in France as the Global Marketing and Systems Vice President for the Water & Heat Division; and, in 2013, he became President of the Water Division, responsible for the global strategy, management and growth of the sector based in France and then Austin, Texas.

Gavin has started factories, facilities and water infrastructure from the ground up in China, India, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia and Mexico. He presently serves on water technology company advisory boards in Europe and the Americas; and has also served on boards in China, Indonesia, India and Australia.

Gavin holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) in Chemical Engineering from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Lalitha Parthasarathy

Graduate Process Engineer, Sydney Water

Lalitha graduated UNSW with a Bachelor in Chemical Engineering degree (Hons Class 1). Lalitha's first placement was in Wastewater network programs team (Corrosion and odour) where she assisted with the investigation and rectification of network related odour & corrosion and fats, oils and greases (FOG) issues. This year, she will be working in the Lower Hawkesbury Hub as part of the operations team.

Working at a tertiary wastewater treatment site has allowed Lalitha to further develop fundamental understanding of treatment processes and has given her a practical insight into process engineering.

Steve Adamthwaite

Senior Wastewater Strategy Engineer at Hunter Water

Steve Adamthwaite is a Senior Water Strategy Planner at Arup, a passionate volunteer holding leadership positions with WaterAid NSW, Australian Water Assoc. and Engineers Australia and is a vocal advocate for Mental Health and Indigenous Engagement, Participation and Inclusion. Steve has had a diverse career spanning several industries from Academic Research, Mining, Operations, Technical Services, Project Management, Water Utilities and Consulting. Steve uses his broad range of experience and skills to span both technical engineering areas, and non-technical areas such as communications, engagement and change management. Steve’s specialty is strategic projects with complex stakeholder relations, lots of moving parts, competing priorities and uncertainties.

Christopher Skellern

Graduate, Stantec

Chris has been working in the water industry since 2019 when he completed his chemical engineering thesis at Sydney Water on biogas treatment. Since then, he has worked as a process engineer at Aurecon designing water filtration plants, and more recently as a graduate at Stantec working on detailed design for both wastewater and water infrastructure.

He aims to become an expert at emerging recycled water technologies and is heavily involved in the Young Water Professionals networks in NSW.