University of Iowa Sustainable Water Development trainees and students Thomas Robinson and Luiza Notini were award winners at the 2018 North-Central Section meeting of the Geological Society of America in Ames, IA.

Robinson was selected runner-up in the Graduate Student Poster Presentations with his poster entitled “DEGRADATION OF TCE BY IRON MINERALS AND AQUIFER MATERIALS.”

Notini was selected runner-up in the Graduate Student Oral Presentations with her poster entitled “THE ROLE OF DEFECTS IN FE(II) - GOETHITE ELECTRON TRANSFER.”

ABOUT 230 student papers were submitted and accepted, of which 78 were oral presentations (64 graduate students, 13 undergraduate students, and one middle-school student), and 152 were poster presentations (64 graduate students and 88 undergraduate students). Forty judges reviewed the presentations.

In 2016, the University of Iowa received a five-year, $3 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) grant to develop the Sustainable Water Development graduate program. The innovative graduate program trains a new generation of water sustainability professionals to address the tangle of water, food, and energy challenges facing resource-limited communities, which include rural, often agricultural-based communities, as well as poor urban centers and developing countries. It is the only NRT-funded training program of its kind in Iowa.