View Source | September 6, 2018
Professors Bruce Rittmann and Mark van Loosdrecht received the 2018 Stockholm Water Prize on Wednesday for microbiological research and innovations that have revolutionized water and wastewater treatment. The prize was presented to them by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at a ceremony in Stockholm City Hall during World Water Week.
Bruce Rittman is a sustainability scientist in Arizona State University's Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and a regents' professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. He is also the director of the Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology in the Biodesign Institute. Rittmann's research, along with the research of van Loosdrecht from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, has contributed to the understanding of how microorganisms can transform organic pollutants to something of value to humans and the environment.
This remarkable scientific achievement has led to the implementation across the globe of technologies that make it possible to remove harmful contaminants from water, cut wastewater treatment costs, reduce energy consumption and even recover chemicals and nutrients for recycling.