Date & Time: Thursday April 12, 2012 – 7:30 PM
Location: Montgomery Community College (Rockville Campus) – Humanity Building (HU), Conference Room 009 ( Get Directions, Campus Map )
Speakers of this month: Drs Ben & Zohreh Movahed
Synopsis:
Water is life! After air, water is the most precious resource on earth. Without adequate and safe drinking water and proper sanitation, the whole society’s livelihood will be jeopardized. This presentation provides a brief overview of some of the local, national and global challenges related to water; presents many questions about the “current” practices related to water usage and discusses possible strategies towards sustainable solutions, including advanced water treatment and desalination as potential tools in the tool box. The audience will learn the value of water to life and the fact that, in the future, the most competitive world issue will be the availability of water, more than oil! The World Bank estimates that 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and about 50 percent of the world’s hospital beds are populated by people who have contracted water-borne diseases. The audience will also become familiar with some of the local and national challenges including: aging Infrastructure, consequences of large water main breaks (e.g., River Road Water Main Break); presence of micro pollutants in water supplies, concerns about the perception of “unacceptable” tap water quality resulting in excessive use of bottled water, the controversial idea of using of alternative non-potable sources for flushing toilets, and many more intriguing challenges.
About Ben Movahed, P.E., BCEE
Ben (Behanm) is the President of WATEK Engineering Corporation in Silver Spring, Maryland. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from University of Houston and a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from University of Maryland.
He is a registered professional engineer in eight states, a board certified Environmental Engineer and has over 26 years of experience in evaluation and design of water treatment facilities. Ben is internationally involved and is specialized in reverse osmosis desalination and membrane filtration technologies. Ben is the Past President and current board member of the American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA) and Past Chair of the AWWA water quality committee (CS). He has received numerous awards from various water industry organizations and teaches short courses on membrane and desalination technologies to water plant operators and guest speaker for the Johns Hopkins University graduate student classes.
Ben has managed the design and construction of over 150 projects utilizing various types of water treatment technologies from very small (10,000 gallons per day) to some of the world’s largest facilities with capacities over 100 million gallons per day.
About Zohreh Y. Movahed, Ph.D. P.E.
Dr. Zohreh Movahed has a B.S., in Chemical Engineering, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering. She is a registered Professional Engineering in the State of Maryland. She has extensive water and wastewater related work experience working for private and public entities. For the past 20 years, She has been working at Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) and Currently she is in charge of the WSSC’s Regulatory Services Group Leader.
She has also been a part time instructor for the Johns Hopkins University for the past 14 years. She has received numerous awards for her outstanding performance and achievements.
Behnam and Zohreh are both dedicated to the field of water. Their professional mission is to protect and enhance quality of life by helping to address various water and wastewater related challenges.
Fee (including dinner): $5 Students, $15 Public
RSVP: Please click here to RSVP for dinner.