Two MIT PhD students awarded J-WAFS fellowships for their research on water
The Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) announces MIT PhD students Jonathan Bessette and Akash Ball as the 2024-2025 J-WAFS Fellows for water treatment technologies.
J-WAFS executive director Renee Robins says: "Bessette and Ball both stood out, even in a very competitive pool of candidates. The award of the J-WAFS fellowships to these two students underscores our confidence in their potential to bring transformative solutions to global water challenges."
Jonathan Bessette, who is awarded the Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellowship for Water Solutions for his work on water treatment in developing countries, says: "My work involves designing low-cost, sustainable, renewable-powered desalination technologies for highly constrained situations, such as drinking water for remote communities."
Akash Ball, is awarded the J-WAFS Graduate Student Fellowship, supported by the J-WAFS Research Affiliate Programme, for his work on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with applications for water desalination, batter recycline and removing heavy metals from wastewater. Akash says: "Climate change, water pollution and scarce freshwater reserves cause sever water distress for about 4 billion people annually, with 2 billion in India and China's semiarid regions."
Since 2014, the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) has advanced interdisciplinary research aimed at solving the world's most pressing water and food security challenges to meet human needs. In 2017, J-WAFS established the Rasikbhai L. Meswani Water Solutions Fellowship and the J-WAFS Graduate Student Fellowship. These fellowships provide support to outstanding MIT graduate students who are pursuing research that has the potential to improve water and food systems around the world.