News Announcing the 2019 Winners of the J-WAFS Water Leaders Travel Grant

June 6, 2019

Flying flags at the World Water Week in Stockholm

We are pleased to announce the 2019 winners of the J-WAFS Water Leaders Travel Grant, an annual professional development opportunity that supports MIT graduate students’ attendance at select international water conferences. This year, the grant is supporting three students to attend Stockholm World Water Week. They are:

  • Nadia Christidi, PhD candidate, Program in History, Anthropology, Science, Technology, and Society
  • Dai Lin, SM candidate, Program in Systems Design and Management
  • Sophia Wu, SM candidate, Technology and Policy Program

World Water Week is an international water conference where nearly 400 organizations from 130 countries attend to discuss global water issues. This year’s theme is “Water for society – Including all.” Xylem Inc., a J-WAFSResearch Affiliate company, is the global sponsor of World Water Week as well as the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, which is awarded during the event. The selected students will be able to attend all programmed events at World Water Week and will also be able to participate in additional opportunities to meet with Xylem leaders and participate in Xylem-sponsored side events.

About our grantees

 

Nadia Christidi is a PhD candidate in the Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS). Her dissertation research is focused on the way cities facing water shortages imagine, plan, and prepare for the water shortages that are projected, with a particular focus on Los Angeles, Dubai, and Cape Town. Her project takes an interdisciplinary approach; among her materials are the plans put forward by government entities and non-profits as well as those imagined by artists and science fiction writers. At World Water Week, Nadia plans on attending sessions that expand her knowledge of urban water supply challenges and water management, as well as those that address climate change, resilience, and smart infrastructure.

Dai Lin is a master’s student in the Program in Systems Design and Management through the School of Engineering and the Sloan School of Management. Dai’s passion for water-sector issues began during an MIT class on water resource management, taught by former J-WAFS PI Kenneth Strzepek of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. The summer that followed, she worked as a field representative for Saha Global, training women entrepreneurs to launch clean water businesses in northern Ghana. During this experience, she saw a wide variety of challenges intersect to contribute to the water challenges in the area in which she worked. Now her research is focused on how to increase the socio-economic valuation of water in order to promote better resource management overall. At World Water Week, Dai is looking forward to connecting with others interested in this question in order to seed possible future research collaborations.

Sophia Wu is a master’s student in the Technology and Policy Program at MIT. Trained as a mechanical engineer, she is now pursuing an interdisciplinary degree program in order to focus on advancing safe drinking water access for all, especially for some of the most vulnerable populations on the planet. In pursuit of this goal, she joined the research team led by Susan Murcott of MIT D-Lab and Jeffrey Ravel of the History Program that has been developing a low-cost E. coli test kit for drinking water in Nepal with funding from J-WAFS. She has also been working under civil and environmental engineering professor Andrew Whittle, who is another J-WAFS PI. This project seeks to understand the effects of intermittent water supply on drinking water quality. At World Water Week, Sophia intends to specifically connect with others working on smart water management, especially as it relates to municipal utilities.

This grant opportunity is just one of several ways that Xylem is supporting the growth and development of a new generation of water innovators at MIT. In addition to three sponsored research projects supported through J-WAFS, Xylem also sponsors the MIT Water Club’s Water Innovation Prize, funds one of J-WAFS’ graduate student fellowships, and individually mentors select students on campus.