WQRA Directors elected

Four Directors' terms on the WQRA Board expired at the end of the recent WQRA AGM on 28 October, 2011: one Industry Director position and three Research Director positions.

Incumbent Industry Director Mr Keith Cadee (Water Corporation), renominated and was automatically re-elected, as his nomination was uncontested.

Four nominations were received by the Returning Officer for the vacating Research Director positions: Prof Simon Beecham (UniSA), Dr John Howard (Australian Water Quality Centre) and Prof David Waite (University of NSW) all renominated, and Prof Stephen Gray (Victoria University) was a new nomination. Elections were held from the 5-20 October 2011, and 30 eligible members' votes were received by the closing date.

WQRA Chair Prof Michael Moore announced the successful candidates at the 2011 WQRA AGM and, on behalf of the WQRA members, congratulated Prof Beecham, Dr Howard and Prof Gray on their appointment as Directors for the WQRA Board.

Prof Moore also extended his thanks and appreciation to Prof David Waite for his considerable and highly valued contributions to WQRA during his time on the WQRA Board. WQRA looks forward to continuing valued input from Prof Waite through his ongoing involvement as Deputy Chair on the WQRA Scientific Advisory Committee to Board, as well as a Member Representative for UNSW.

We would like to thank all the Directors who renominated, and those who are continuing their terms in office on the WQRA Board. The success of WQRA as an organisation relies heavily upon their input.

WQRA also welcomes Prof Stephen Gray to the WQRA Board. We look forward to his contributions to WQRA, and thank him for his willingness to share his time and expertise with WQRA, on behalf of its members.

Prof Gray is the Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Innovation at Victoria University, where he is responsible for Victoria University’s water research program. This role requires the development of a multi-disciplinary applied research program that incorporates water treatment, water resources, asset management, social science, ecology, ICT and economic expertise, and that has strong connections to the water industry. His research interests include desalination processes, membrane fouling, membrane distillation, distributed treatment systems and contaminant modelling.

He was previously team leader of the CSIRO Urban Water team and has over 20 years' research experience in water and wastewater treatment.  He was also the cluster leader for the CSIRO cluster project on Advanced Membrane Technologies for Water Treatment that involved research partners from nine Australian universities. He is AWA’s co-convenor for the Desalination and Membranes Special Interest Network and is an Editor of the IWA journal Desalination and Water Reuse, an Associate Editor of Water Research and is on the Editorial Board of Desalination. He was actively involved in the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment (WQRA's precurser organisation) and is a strong supporter of WQRA. 

Pictured: New WQRA Research Director Prof Stephen Gray.