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Congratulations to Adair Gallo for winning the best poster award at the 5th Water Arabia Conference and Exhibition held at Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia on October 17th -19th. The conference co-organized by Saudi Arabian Water Environment Association (SAWEA) and the Water Environment Federation (WEF) was dedicated to water and wastewater treatment and conservation which is very important in the region.

Adair's poster entitled "Superhydrophobic Sand Mulches for Desert Agriculture" is about a novel technique that uses superhydrophobic sands for reducing evaporation of water from soils. This technology has the potential to dramatically impact how agriculture will be done in arid regions in the future. By reducing evaporation, the moisture content in the soil stays at suitable levels for the plants for longer times, enhancing crop endurance and yields in such arid climates. "We are very optimistic about the scalability of the idea and we will keep doing more field trials to understand all the limitations and opportunities for such sands", Adair commented. Adair is under the supervision of Professor Himanshu Mishra.

WDRC was represented by Ph.D. students Adair Gallo, Sandra Medina and Jamilya Nauruzbayeva who presented their posters to H.E. Eng. Mansour Helal Al-Mushaiti,  Saudi Deputy Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture and Dr. Abdullah O. Al-Baiz, Vice President of Engineering Services of Saudi Aramco.