CRC Team Members Honoured at the Australian Water Association Awards in Queensland

Fiona Chandler, Program Manager at the International WaterCentre and joint leader of the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities’ Program D – Adoption Pathways, was named 2013 Queensland Water Professional of the Year at the annual Australian Water Associations Queensland Branch Awards night last Friday 12th July.

The award is to honour individuals who have displayed passion and commitment to the water industry, while also demonstrating outstanding leadership and influence with the following assessment criteria:-

• an exemplary personal and professional contribution in their field.
• leadership and influence amongst their colleagues and peers within the water sector.
• raising the profile of careers in the water industry.
• held in high esteem for the mentoring roles they play to junior water industry professionals.
• contribution to water awareness in the community.

Fiona certainly excels in each of the above criteria and is internationally recognised as a leader and ambassador for integrated water management.  With more than 15 years in government and private organisations, she has a diverse career involving total water cycle policy and planning, river basin management, stormwater and water quality management, and building the capacity of other future water leaders from around the globe. Within the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, Fiona co-leads Program D in fostering adoption pathways of our research insights and recommendations as well as facilitating industry inputs to research activities. Fiona is also on the CRC Executive, responsible for the Education and Training portfolio, and she brings to the CRC her vast experience in capacity building and industry engagement. Her passion and commitment to the future of the water industry and her personal influence on Urban Water Management is inspiring and now formally acknowledged by the industry through this award.

At this same event A/Prof Damien Batstone from the University of Queensland, and Project Leader of CRC WSC Project Resource Recovery from Wastewater, together with his team in the Advanced Biosolids Technology Program was awarded the Research Innovation Award. His program has conducted transformational research over the last 5 years that has substantially modified the landscape of biosolids treatment and subsequent beneficial use options. The original research premise was to develop technology that would be applicable at all scales, and enable lower whole of life biosolids management costs, while decreasing environmental footprint, and enhancing worker and community safety. The research work has integrated laboratory, research, and pilot work across municipal and industrial fields to provide strong technical benefits, a strong understanding of the underlying processes, and integrated decision support tools to guide biosolids handling infrastructure. Congratulations to Damien and his team.