| NSF Org: |
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | May 8, 2020 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 8, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 2029219 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Christina Payne
cpayne@nsf.gov (703)292-2895 CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | May 15, 2020 |
| End Date: | October 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $15,390.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $15,390.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
110 INNER CAMPUS DR AUSTIN TX US 78712-1139 (512)471-6424 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
TX US 78759-5316 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): | Interfacial Engineering Progra |
| Primary Program Source: |
|
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
This award will provide partial travel support for 200 U.S.-based undergraduate and graduate students to attend the 2020 Meeting of the North American Membrane Society (NAMS) that is being held in an innovative online format. NAMS is a premier membrane conference, providing outstanding technical sessions across the full breadth of topics within membrane science and technology. The theme of the 2020 meeting is "Emerging Membrane Materials, Processes and Applications," which aligns with several Grand Challenges recently identified by the National Academy of Engineering. The meeting has a rich history of engaging graduate student researchers directly through targeted programs and award opportunities. The goal of this project is to extend these opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students that are typically unable to attend the conference due to cost or time constraints. Additionally, it will provide a platform for students to engage with community leaders, despite the limitations imposed by the ongoing pandemic. In particular, it will impact undergraduate students interested in membrane science and technology but who are not yet committed to pursuing the field as a career. The targeted undergraduate mentoring program will ensure the students take full advantage of the technical, social, and networking opportunities available to them at NAMS 2020. Early engagement in a professional society/conference will provide students with motivation and encouragement to pursue advanced degrees in their respective fields and, subsequently, develop a healthy and diverse workforce.
The NAMS organizing committee is comprised of diverse North American researchers, and invited speakers from academia, industry, and government labs feature prominently in the program. The meeting will feature five technical workshops, over 30 technical sessions, daily plenary sessions, a poster session, and abundant unstructured discussion periods to catalyze new collaborative relationships and research ideas. The 2020 NAMS meeting will cover the following topics: (1) membrane materials - chemistry and characterization; (2) membrane processes - fundamentals and improvements; and (3) membrane applications - water treatment, energy, and biological/food. Historically, hundreds of graduate students participate in the NAMS meeting and engage in unique professional development and training opportunities. This award will extend such opportunities to nearly all the U.S. graduate students in attendance and will target undergraduate student engagement through a mentoring program. Undergraduate students will be paired with senior graduate student mentors who will serve as meeting guides. The program's effectiveness will be assessed through surveys and observation of student outcomes. It is anticipated that the award for meeting registration subsidies will attract diverse young scientists in the field and enhance the membrane science and technology workforce.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The work conducted during this project aimed to provide support for a unique expanded program that promoted and evaluated active participation of a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students in the unique and completely online 2020 Annual Meeting of the North American Membrane Society (NAMS). NAMS has been one of the premier membrane conferences in the world, providing outstanding technical sessions across the full breadth of topics within membrane science and technology. NAMS also has a long history of actively involving graduate students in its annual meeting. The COVID-19 pandemic led to cancellation of the in-person conference and NAMS decided to pursue one of the earliest all-online conferences. This NSF supported project provided a unique opportunity to provide a forum for expanded access for a large number of students to the NAMS conference. The 2020 NAMS conference had the largest number of attendees ever at a NAMS conference as well as an increase in diversity and total student participation at the conference.
Intellectual Merit. Separations technology is critical to address the needs of society. Separation processes are used to produce safe drinking water, valuable medicines, key chemicals and fuels, and myriad other products that help improve the human condition. Membrane-based separations offer a number of unique advantages compared to competing technologies including: lower energy requirements, relative ease of scale-up, and no phase changes or chemical additives. For example, reverse osmosis (RO) systems for desalination typically require only 10% of the energy of comparable thermal processes. The Freedonia Group (2015) recently projected that the market for membrane technology would increase at an annual rate of 8.5% over the next several years, reaching annual global sales of more than $28 billion by 2020 with approximately 25% of that within the U.S. The work conducted as a part of this project also provided a platform for comparison of online vs onsite conferences and the possible role that online/hybrid conferences can play in expanding diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DEI) in scientific conferences. This work which helped collect data from the NAMS conference as well as a few other online/onsite conferences has resulted in a publication that has been placed in a publicly available archive and is under peer review.
Broader Impacts. Support for student participation in online NAMS 2020 helped addressed a critical need to continue building the talent pool for workers in the membrane industry safely whilst in the middle of a pandemic. The anticipated >8% annual growth rate in the industry requires a highly skilled labor force that is well-prepared to contribute to the development and application of membrane technology to meet the growing needs of society for more sustainable separation solutions. This includes providing clean drinking water, facilitating, carbon dioxide capture, to the development of separations critical to the biopharmaceutical industry, all of which are key focal areas of NAMS 2020. In addition to providing training, it provided much needed connection, networking, and mentorship to these students at a critical time. 200 US undergraduate and graduate students were supported as a part of the funding provided this work and. It also helped enable technological solutions to hosting a full online conference and assisted in data collection on the possible broader impact on promoting DEI at scientific conferences through online/hybrid formats.
Last Modified: 12/30/2020
Modified by: Manish Kumar
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
