Mobility Award 2012 winners
© 2012 EPFL
Apiparn Borisuit and Michael Jon Mattle are the co-winners of the EDCE PhD Mobility Award and have received CHF 2'000.- each.
Apiparn Borisuit's project description:
My thesis aims to effectively assess the impact of light on visual comfort including both visual and non-image forming effects. It will contribute to improve the well-being of building occupants and thus providing a more comprehensive scientific and practical base for “healthy lighting” at workplaces. In order to assess the distribution of environmental light, its intensity and spectral composition, we use a novel high dynamic range luminance-meter for dynamic luminance mapping and glare risk assessments. The sojourn within the Windows and Daylighting Group of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL; CA United States) will provide the opportunity to investigate several luminous distributions under different daylighting conditions and compare the corresponding experimental results with computer simulations. The research will be useful not only for my thesis but also for future projects in the energy efficiency and human perception domains.
Michael Jon Mattle's project description:
Most common water treatment methods are not suitable or affordable for developing countries. Therefore, there exists a tremendous need for effective, low-cost methods. The goal of this project is to estimate inactivation kinetics of viruses in waste stabilisation ponds, a low-cost method which is already widely applied in developing countries. In particular, I will study sunlight mediated processes that lead to damage to viral genomes and proteins. Collaboration with Prof. D. Vione at Università degli Studi di Torino will be of fundamental help to achieve this ambitious objective. He has both the necessary equipment and experience to individually analyze the key oxidation processes that lead to inactivation in waste stabilization ponds. Additionally, he developed an already well-established modelling tool for organic pollutant degradation in surface waters. This model will be modified for our purposes once we experimentally determined the relevant disinfection rates for viruses.