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Congratulations to the Winners of the EWRI Visiting International Fellowship!

The EWRI’s International Cooperation Council (ICC) recently hosted Ms. Rongqiu Cai and Dr. Alexander Bohuslavsky as its two distinguished Visiting International Fellows at the World Water and Environmental Resources Congress in Orlando, Florida. The Visiting International Fellowship program was established by the ICC to promote cultural and technical exchange between EWRI members and international colleagues from developing countries. The two Fellows were selected by members of the ICC based on a competitive process in which their applications were reviewed regarding the following aspects: 1) cultural and professional exchange activities proposed during the visit to the United States; 2) sponsorship by an ASCE or EWRI member; and 3) technical content of the proposed presentation. Each Fellow gave a presentation on a water or environmental resources topic pertinent to his/her country at the conference in a special session sponsored by the ICC. Both Fellows noted the value of their participation in the conference in terms of introducing them to scientific issues, professional contacts, and the EWRI.

Ms. Cai, a native of Beijing, China, is currently the Deputy Chief Engineer of System Operations for the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) in Pretoria, South Africa. She completed her Bachelors of Engineering degree from the University of Wuhan in 1985. She worked for the China Academy of Railway Science as a research engineer for 9 years before joining the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry in 1994. Ms. Cai received her Bachelors of Engineering (Hons) degree from the University of Pretoria in 1999, and became registered as a Professional Engineer of South Africa in 2000. Ms. Cai was sponsored by Mr. Jan Malan Jordaan who is a member of both EWRI and ASCE. Her presentation and paper was entitled “Discharge Characteristics of the Conduit Radial Gate Spillway.” Upon her return to South Africa, Ms. Cai prepared a report for her agency on her visit to the United States, and she has also joined the Border International Water Quality Standards Committee of the EWRI, noting that many of the issues that committee is addressing are of great interest to the DWAF.

Dr. Bohuslavsky is a Senior Researcher at the Radiological Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He received his first degree from the Department of Physics at Tavria University in Crimea, Ukraine in 1977. He received his Ph.D. from the Institution of Mathematics, Department of Nonlinear Problems at the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1982. Since 1982, Dr. Bohuslavsky has been with the Radiological Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine as an Engineer, Junior Researcher, and Senior Researcher, specializing in mathematical modeling of groundwater dynamics and transport. Since 1986, Dr. Bohuslavsky’s research has focused on Chernobyl-related problems of groundwater radioactive contamination. Dr. Bohuslavsky was sponsored by Dr. John Labadie (member EWRI/ASCE), and gave a presentation entitled “Modeling Study of the Preferential Vertical Transport Zones Within Chernobyl Area and Their Role in Radioactive Contamination of Groundwater.” Dr. Bohuslavsky also generously donated an atlas of research findings related to the Chernobyl incident entitled “Atlas of Chernobyl Exclusion Zone” to the EWRI. Following the conference, Dr. Bohuslavsky visited the Earth Sciences and Resources Institute (ESRI) at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, where he participated in discussions that resulted in preparations for collaborative work with ESRI scientists to do joint research and publications to study the structure and mechanisms of preferential pathways phenomena in anomalous relief depressions for plane relief landscapes in Ukraine, the United States, Poland, Germany, and other countries.

More information about the fellowship is available at the following website: http://www.cabnr.unr.edu/saito/infovif.htm.