The William Dunbar Medal is bestowed in recognition of outstanding achievements in the field of practice-oriented technological development for the treatment and disposal of wastewater and waste. The International Trade Fair for Waste Disposal and the Environment IFAT created the prize in 1973 and awards it every three years to a representative of a member country of the European Water Association/EWA in the framework of the IFAT opening ceremony.
The prize is endowed with e 5,000 and is given in remembrance to William Philipps Dunbar, a pioneer in wastewater technology. Dunbar was born 1863 in Minnesota (USA) and was summoned to Hamburg in September 1892 during the disastrous cholera epidemic.
Dunbar improved the detection procedure for the cholera and pest pathogens. He regularly surveyed the river and tap water, as waterways had proved to be especially significant for the spread of cholera. In the framework of the IFAT 2005, Haakon Thaulow, President of the EWA, bestowed this internationally appreciated award to the Austrian expert Helmut Kroiss in recognition of his outstanding contributions to waste water treatment and water protection.
In his laudation, Thaulow emphasised the great merits of Helmut Kroiss in the field of design and operation of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants. As holder of patents in the development of industrial water protection technologies, Kroiss has already proved for a long time that theory and practice can be combined in an ideal way. Haakon Thaulow: "He is a scientist far away from the proverbial ivory tower!"
Helmut Kroiss was born in 1944 in Mauterndorf (Province of Salzburg). After a Master’s degree in civil engineering at the Vienna University of Technology, Kroiss worked as assistant at the Institute for Water Quality at the Vienna University of Technology, where he earned a doctorate in 1977.
In 1987, he was appointed as full professor for water supply, wastewater treatment and water protection at the Institute for Water Quality and Waste Management at the Vienna University of Technology. Helmut Kroiss became dean of the faculty of civil engineering in 1994. Next to his work for the EWA, the present holder of the William Philipps Dunbar Medal is active in many international organisations.
(Source: aqua press Int. 2/2005)
