KINGSTON, ONTARIO, July 5, 2022 – Purafy Water Technologies is pleased to announce that its Research Consultant, Anil Kumar Avula, is one of the winners of the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW), a prestigious international prize supported by the United Nations that recognizes achievements in research in the areas of water scarcity and security around the globe.
Mr. Avula, who has been a key member of Purafy’s research and development team for nearly two years, was formally disclosed as one of the 10th award winners last month under the Space and Water Agenda of the 65th Session of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS), which took place in Vienna, Austria from June 1 to 10. The official PSIPW award ceremony will take place later this year.
Under Prof. Thalappil Pradeep’s stewardship at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, Mr. Avula was a part of a team that developed environmentally friendly “water positive” nanoscale materials for the affordable, sustainable, and rapid removal of arsenic from drinking water. This research earned the team won the Creativity Prize, which is one of the five prizes for a wide variety of relevant, groundbreaking solutions that promise to help provide needed drinking water to the world’s people.
“I was surprised when I saw the email from my professor,” said Mr. Avula, recalling the moment he received word of the award. “I was in the lab day and night, which was hard work, and there were many struggles to solve real problems for real people. But when you get global recognition for your work, it pushes you forward to do more work, and that makes me happy.”
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals that all United Nations Member States adopted in 2015. The SDGs are an intergovernmental roadmap for achieving sustainable development by 2030. Within these goals, goal six is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
The SDGs are an essential tool for guiding policymakers and businesses in their efforts to create a more sustainable world. By working towards these goals, industries can create a more equitable, prosperous, and environmentally sound future.
Mr. Avula stressed the importance of reaching those goals to lead to a brighter future for the planet: “If you take anything in the universe, whether it be humans, animals or the environment, in some way they are contributing to the goals. If you are directly or indirectly working towards the goals, then you are aiming to achieve the sustainable goals.”
“Anil’s recognition as one of the world’s most creative researchers into the global problem of water scarcity and security is extremely well deserved,” said Cameron Runte, VP Product Development at Purafy. “All of us here at Purafy have appreciated the value he brings to the team for some time, and we look forward to celebrating this achievement with him and continuing to work with him as we develop our graphene-enhanced water filtration technologies and products.”
For more information on Purafy’s proprietary and patented graphene products, visit purafy.com.
About the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW)
The Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) is a scientific prize with a focus on innovation. Established in 2002 by HRH Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz, it rewards the efforts made by scientists, inventors and research organizations around the world, which contribute to the sustainable availability of potable water and the alleviation of the escalating global problem of water scarcity.
To this end, PSIPW awards a suite of five prizes every two years, covering the entire water research landscape. In this way, PSIPW encourages research to find solutions to the various water-related challenges facing the world today.
About Purafy Clean Technologies
At Purafy, we believe in a world where clean water is accessible to all. We apply cutting-edge materials and innovations in nanotechnology to manufacture and distribute robust and effective water filtration systems for commercial and residential use to help defeat the water scarcity issue. We believe that graphene – a thin layer of graphite that has endless potential applications in almost every industry due to its unique and extraordinary qualities – holds the key to developing and producing more effective, safe, and environmentally friendly solutions that deliver clean water in both small and largescale applications.
Purafy Clean Technologies is a division of Grafoid Inc., a graphene research, development and investment company that invests in, manages and develops markets for processes that produce economically scalable graphene for use in graphene development applications by leading corporations and institutions. For more information, please visit purafy.com.
For more information, please contact:
Kimberly Darlington
Purafy Clean Technologies
kdarlington@purafy.com
514-771-3398