The Grundfos Prize 2012 of 1 million Danish kroner was awarded to Professor Hans-Jørgen Albrechtsen from the Technical University of Denmark. The prize of was awarded in recognition of Professor Albrechtsen’s long-standing research into the water quality of both groundwater and drinking water. This is an area that holds global perspectives, the jury says, and this year, the prize was awarded under the heading ‘Water is life’.
Hans-Jørgen Albrechtsen is Professor of Public Health Engineering at the Danish Technical University, DTU Environment – Department of Environmental Engineering. His research focuses on microbiology in groundwater and drinking water. He has been working with microbial processes in connection with groundwater pollution from landfills and environmentally alien substances, pesticides in particular, and their fate in groundwater environments. Today, the main focus is on water treatment and water supply.
“The Grundfos Prize 2012 makes a difference and offers us an important opportunity to intensify our work within biotechnology to remove pesticides from the groundwater as part of water treatment processes. In addition, the prize helps to develop the important collaboration that takes place between universities, the industry and supply units within the water sector” said Professor Albrechtsen.