By John Azubuike '13

It was great to hear from Professor Mierzwa about his work. He is developing new water filtration technologies. While at the surface it seems to be a distant topic from energy, it didn’t take long for him to explain the tie-in. The product that he was developing and optimizing would make for a faster, more energy efficient, and less chemical dependent water treatment system. Projects like his strike me as especially important for developing countries, which often lack the funds and access to chemicals that modern water treatment techniques require. I couldn’t help but think of the applicability of such a project to my home country of Nigeria. As both a bioengineering student and a person born in a developing country, I view technologies that efficiently increase access to clean water as being key to reducing health risks and increasing productivity in the developing world. Hopefully Professor Mierzwa’s work will one day come to benefit both his country and my own. 

John Azubuike '13 is an Engineering Sciences concentrator at Harvard College