Chitral gets PhD scholar in environmental engineering

Mr. Shams Ali Baig, a Chinese Government’s scholarship holder from Reshun (Green Lasht), has successfully defended his PhD dissertation at the Institute of Environmental Science and Engineering in Zhejiang University China. His PhD research work focused on “Adsorption performance and mechanisms of arsenic from drinking water using novel iron/iron-oxide amended composite adsorbents”, which falls under the water pollution control and environmental remediation domain of the institute. Arsenic is a carcinogenic element distributed in water environments by natural and anthropogenic processes. Mr. Shams during his PhD research introduced a cost-effective novel approach for the synthesis of iron-oxide based composite adsorbents to simultaneously treat arsenic-contaminated drinking water in batch as well as in column-based treatments. This study further explored the applicability of the developed adsorbents in a decentralized treatment system in order to scale up in field-based applications. Three and half years long progressive research findings were segregated into 12 SCI research papers and published in various internationally peer-reviewed journals including Ecological Engineering, Chemical Engineering Journal, Journal of Environmental Engineering, Biomass and Bioenergy, Plos One, Clean Water, Journal of Hazardous Materials and Hydrometallurgy. His research interests include water pollution control, environmental bioremediation, ecological sanitation and public health. He also collaborated with other research groups of the Institute and co-authored in 25 scientific publications with a cumulative scientific impact factor of over 100. Besides, his publications also received over 180 citations in 2 years. Previously, he studied at Peshawar University for his MSc degree in environmental sciences. In 2008 he was awarded NORAD (Norwegian Agency for Development and Cooperation) scholarship to study MS in Water and Sanitation at COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Abbotabad under Norwegian Masters’ program. In the same study program, he also proceeded to Norwegian University of Life Sciences for a summer course in “Decentralized Wastewater Treatment” in 2009. Prior arriving to Zhejiang University for his PhD, Mr. Shams worked for different International Organizations (Oxfam GB, World Vision, NCA, CWS, TDH and JEN) in water and environmental sanitation projects in various capacities.]]>