Jaap van der Graaf Award
The Jaap van der Graaf Award was introduced to mark the retirement of Prof. J.H.J.M. van der Graaf as Professor of Effluent Treatment at the Delft University of Technology. The award carries a cash prize of EUR 5,000 and a glass figurine. The award was presented for the first time on 15 January 2010.
From 1989 to 2009, Jaap van der Graaf was Professor of Effluent Treatment at the Civil Engineering and Geosciences Faculty of the Delft University of Technology. From 1988 to 2003, he served as managing director of Witteveen+Bos. Since 2003 he has remained attached to our firm as a senior adviser.
Together with Van der Graaf, Witteveen+Bos decided to introduce an award for the best article in English on the collection and treatment of effluent. The award seeks to highlight Dutch expertise in this specialised field of work. The cash prize that goes with the award must be used for such purposes as a study trip or promotional activities. Articles must satisfy the following conditions:
- the article must be about effluent collection or treatment
- the author must be a university student or work in this branch of engineering in the Netherlands
- the English article must have been published in a technical journal in 2009
- the subject of the article must be usable in practice
- authors of all nationalities may enter articles
The independent jury consists of:
- Prof. J.B. van Lier, Delft University of Technology/Unesco-IHE (chairman)
- J. Kruit, Pacques
- A.W.A. de Man, Limburg Water Board
- Dr. A.F. van Nieuwenhuijzen, Witteveen+Bos
- Dr. H. Temmink, WUR/Wetsus
The award was presented for the first time at the 62nd Drinking Water and Effluent Course in Delft on 15 January 2010. This congress is organised by the Health Technology section of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences of the Delft University of Technology in association with VEWIN, KVWN, RIVM, KWR, NVA, RIONED, RIZA and STOWA.
Three of the ten entries were nominated. The winning article was ‘Nitrous oxide emission during wastewater treatment’ (Water Research 43, 2009) by Marlies Kampschreur et al.
The other two nominations were:
- D. Jeison, et al, ‘Thermophilic sidestream anaerobic membrane bioreactors: The shear rate dilemma’, Water Environment Research Volume 81, No. 11
- A.A. Moreau, et al, ‘The (in)significance of apparent viscosity in full-scale municipal membrane bioreactors’, Journal of Membrane Science, 340 (2009)
Together with the cash prize the winner receives a commemorative work of art. The glass figurine illustrates the transition from cloudy to clear water and was designed by Henk Adriaan Meijer, a glass artist who employs flat glass as a medium. He uses sand spraying and airbrushing techniques to create a trompe l’oeil and the illusion of three-dimensional work.
Jaap van der Graaf’s farewell speech entitled 'Het geklaarde afvalwater' (The clarified effluent) has been published by Witteveen+Bos in book form (ISBN 978-94-90335-01-4).