VITO Ph.D student wins award of Chinese government as 'Outstanding Student Abroad'
Each year the Chinese government awards the "Outstanding Student Abroad" to a few hundred of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese doctoral students conducting research around the world. This year 300 students received an award, 8 of whom are studying in Belgium. VITO can report with pride that one of its Ph.D students is one of the winners. His research is also fundamental to a completely new method to characterise complex oil pollution of soil: VITO-SoilCareTM.
Mao Debin is working with VITO on the development of innovative environmental analytical technologies. His research is focussed on a comprehensive tool for assessing oil-polluted soils and sediments. He is applying a characterisation method that is based on linking liquid and two-dimensional gas chromatography in order to achieve an analysis of complex contaminations as fast and accurate as possible. This analysis yields a detailed chemical composition as well as a measure of toxicity, the risk of spreading and biodegradability. This technique has applications in petrochemical research as well as risk analysis and decontamination. This is an especially complete test for a problem that is both complex and frequent.
During the award ceremony on Sunday, 3 May 2009, China's Ambassador in Belgium, Zhang Yuanyuan, noted that the rapid development of the Chinese economy creates great opportunities for students specialising abroad. They will be able to apply their knowledge in China and also act as a bridge between China and the rest of the world.
For its part, VITO wishes to continue to play its role in international research and policy issues such as climate change and sustainable development. To do so, VITO has opened its doors to foreign researchers and is active around the world on projects, with and without European support.
More info available on the VITO-site:
Laureates and tutors surround the Chinese ambassadeur.
Mao Debin receives his award from the Chinese ambassadeur.
