Dr Dsilva Winfred Rufuss Devanesan (Research Fellow) has been awarded the highly prestigious Newton International Fellowship award. The Fellowship will be hosted at the School of Engineering, University of Birmingham.
Dr Dsilva Winfred Rufuss Devanesan has been awarded the highly prestigious Newton International Fellowship award, worth a modest £101,833, to carry out research in ‘Advances in Forward Osmosis for Desalination and Water Re-use’ through the Newton-Bhabha Fund.
The Fellowship will be hosted at the School of Engineering, University of Birmingham.
Speaking about his recent award, Rufuss commented, “It is really a proud moment to be awarded such a prestigious fellowship from the Royal Society. I strongly believe that desalination technologies have a greater potential to remedy the world water scarcity. I wish to thank the funding agencies (The Royal Society, UK and SERB, India) for the funding and the UK Co-applicant Professor Philip Davies, Professor of Water Technology, for his valued support.”
“I am really happy to receive this grant to carry out advanced research in forward osmosis. I believe that this research in advanced membrane desalination will be very challenging and there will be a lot to learn during this tenure. I am ready for the collaboration between the existing technology and the upcoming technological advancement in the area of membrane desalination”.
What is the ‘Newton International Fellowship’ award?
The Newton International Fellowship, named after Sir Isaac Newton, is an international postdoctoral award for selected foreign academics to carry out research at institutions in the United Kingdom. It was established by the Royal Society, British Academy, and Royal Academy of Engineering. This scheme is currently run by the British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.
The Fellowships are awarded annually to approximately 40 of the most outstanding early career academics from across the world, in all disciplines of the sciences and humanities. The key objectives of the Newton Fellowship are to bring the best early career academics to the UK and to enhance ties between these academics’ home countries and the UK.
Support from Professor Philip Davies, Professor of Water Technology
In his role as UK Co-Applicant, Professor of Water Technology - Philip Davies gave his strongest possible support for Dr Dsilva Winfred Rufuss Devanesan’s application to the Newton International Fellowship Scheme.
Professor Davies is well familiarised with the Rufuss’ skills and research background, having collaborated with him extensively through the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) Thematic Partnership between Aston University and Anna University on ‘Desalination powered by sustainable energy for water and food’ (2015-16), at which time Philip was employed as Reader at Aston University, Birmingham.
The UKIERI project, in which Prof Davies was Principal Investigator, enabled Rufuss to visit Birmingham three times, for 18 weeks in total. Through those visits he was exceptionally productive. Professor Davies commented on Rufuss’ work ethic, “I have always been highly impressed by Dr Dsilva’s ability to begin with a simple brief, and translate it into a very substantial output with only a modest amount of guidance. This is evidenced by the fact that the above collaboration resulted in 6 joint publications in high-quality international journals. The UKIERI project also resulted in two oral presentations at international conferences, one of which was presented by Rufuss in person – for which he won an award.”
He added on Rufuss’ track record which consistently shows exceptional achievement, “Although recently awarded his PhD, Rufuss already has 20 publications in international journals. He has gained a number of prestigious awards including: Overall Best Outgoing Student Award, Mahatma Gandhi Merit Scholarship Award and Best Project Award (Kumaraguru College of Technology, 2014); two Maulana Azad National Fellowships from the University Grants Commission, India, as Junior and Senior Research Fellow (2015 and 2017 respectively); and Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Renewable Energy and Development (Berlin, 2017). He was also the only researcher to be selected from India for a visit to Japan to participate in the 5th International Platform on Ocean Energy for Young Researchers. This visit was fully funded and hosted by Saga University with delegates attending from 17 countries.”
“Rufuss has put forward the scientific topic of developing novel Forward Osmosis membranes incorporating mesoporous silica hollow spheres. This idea has arisen from his interactions with scientists at Anna University, and is a natural continuation of his materials science interests developed through his PhD. Many of the characterisation skills that Rufuss acquired during his PhD will be valuable to me and my team at the University of Birmingham – given that synthesis of membrane materials is a strategic area where I would like to strengthen our capabilities.
Furthermore, this work dovetails with our current activities in energy-efficiency in desalination processes. It will help us to extend our earlier work on batch Reverse Osmosis processes to the novel area of batch Pressure Assisted Osmosis. The energy efficiency of membrane processes is an area where we are able to offer considerable scientific training to the applicant. The above research areas will together enable us to produce a desalination system that will be of interest to many industries experiencing challenges in managing saline and fouling effluents. In summary, this project will be particularly valuable in bringing together complementary research activities for the mutual benefit of the researchers involved, with prospects to achieve industrial impacts.”
Professor Philip Davies is currently the Project Coordinator of INDIA H2O, a 18-partner EU-India Water Cooperation project (funded by EU Horizon 2020 and Department of Biotechnology, India, 2019-2023) involving participants in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. These include partners in the desalination, textile and dairy industries that are particularly relevant to the Fellowship. He foresees many opportunities for exchange of expertise between the Newton Fellowship and the INDIA H2O, as membrane technologies (especially Forward Osmosis) feature prominently in both.
Regarding his future career plans after the Fellowship, Rufuss intends on returning to Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, India where he aspires to lead a research team. Philip Davies believes the two-year Fellowship spent at the University of Birmingham will greatly accelerate him along this track. The University offers several training courses for researchers and also offers a wealth of collaboration and career development opportunities including co-supervision of Masters and undergraduate students.
Speaking about the future of his research, Rufuss said, “My goal is to recover more freshwater from water sources where the level of salinity and fouling disfavour the use of conventional membrane technologies. I also wish to eliminate the drawbacks in existing forward osmosis such as higher reverse salt flux and difficulty in regenerating the draw solution from the freshwater”.
“In the near future, I firmly believe that this technology will be implemented in desalination, dairy, and textile industries across the globe to recover a higher amount of freshwater and thus providing cheaper freshwater for the people in the impoverished area for the socio-economic uplift and sustainable development.”
We wish Rufuss the best of luck with his research and with his new Fellowship award success.
Royal Society - SERB Newton International Fellow
Staff profile for Dr Dsilva Winfred Rufuss D.
Professor of Water Technology
Staff profile for Professor Philip A. Davies, Professor of Water Technology at the University of Birmingham
