Announcement of the winner of the MEMBRANE DAY 2026 student competition in the Czech Republic

Kategorie článku:

The European Membrane Society has designated 14 April as Membrane Day. This day was established to honour the memory and legacy of the late Professor Enrico Drioli, and coincides with his birthday. Professor Drioli was a leading expert on membranes and was involved in research teams, institutions, projects, non-profit educational organisations, evaluation committees, editorial boards, scientific advisory boards, conferences, workshops, forums and schools.

Given our long-standing collaboration with Professor Drioli at MELPRO conferences, we were delighted to participate in this initiative. In the autumn, we announced a student competition for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying membrane technologies at Czech universities. The papers were evaluated by an expert committee consisting of: Prof. Ing. Karel Friess, Ph.D. (committee chair), Prof. Ing. Petr Mikulášek, CSc, Prof. Eric Favre and Ing. Lukáš Dvořák, Ph.D., Ing. Marek Šír, Ph.D.

In early April, we announced the winner of this year's competition: Ing. Josef Schneider from the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague. He was awarded with a diploma and a cheque for €1,000 in a ceremony, that took place in the historic library of the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague. The award was presented to the winner by the chairman of the evaluation committee, Prof. Ing. Karel Friess, PhD, and the executive director of the Czech Membrane Ing. Miroslav Strnad, MBA.

The winner prepared a video presentation of his work, which is available at this link.

The students enrolled at Czech universities entered the competition; their names and the titles of their theses are listed below:

Ezeogu Nkechi (University of Pardubice) Advanced Nanofiltration Mechanisms for Selective Removal of Emerging Pharmaceuticals from Wastewater: Linking Solute-Membrane Interactions with Process Optimization

Floreková Jana (University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague) Advancing Mixed Matrix Membrane Fabrication through Controlled Nanoparticle Deposition via Magnetic Field: synthesis and application

Gardenö Dániel (University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague) An investigation of 2D-carbon-based membranes with adjustable pore size for low-pressure ultrafiltration

Taghavian Hadi (Technical University of Liberec) Advanced Quaternary Wastewater Treatment Using Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic Membranes

Vespalec Jan (Brno University of Technology) Performance of a Pilot Flotation–Ultrafiltration–Reverse Osmosis System for Industrial Laundry Wastewater Reuse

We would like to thank all the students for their participation, as well as the members of the expert committee, who conscientiously carried out their difficult task. A special thank you also goes to the members of the Czech Membrane Platform, who contributed financially to the prize for the winner.

Congratulations to the winner, Josef Schneider, and we wish you all the best in your future scientific research.

We are already planning the next edition, and all necessary information will be published on our website as soon as possible.

Fotogalerie