Water awards

Several Water Research Group staff and postgraduate students in civil engineering received awards at the recent Water Institute of Southern Africa conference in Durban in May. Dr Sven Sotemann received the CG Cillie prize (floating trophy) for the best PhD thesis in anaerobic digestion in SA in the past two years. Sonel van Wageningen won best paper award at the conference on mine water treatment. Prof Mark Wentzel was elected a senior fellow of WISA for his significant contribution to water research in South Africa, one of 30 among a membership of about 1 700.

Still shining

All's well at the university after the first unplanned power outage hit campus last Thursday evening. The power went down between 19h30 and 20h15. Five students were caught in two lifts, but were released within 20 minutes. Fortunately, there were no exams on the go. Good news on the light front is that the rechargeable fluorescent lamps ordered from China have arrived. These have been distributed to all our residences. They have a life of three hours if both tubes are used (or six hours if one tube is used).