Abul Hussam is the inventor of the Sono arsenic filter. He is a chemistry professor at George Mason University (GMU) in

Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...

, and a member of advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.

Life and career

Hussam was born in Kushtia, and raised in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. Hussam moved to the United States in 1978 for graduate studies. Later he received a doctorate in analytical chemistry and became a naturalized citizen of the US. The

Centreville, Virginia Centreville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States and a suburb of Washington, D.C. The population was 73,518 as of the 2020 census. Centreville is approximately west of Washington, D.C. History Colonia ...

, resident has spent much of this career trying to devise a solution to the problem of

arsenic contamination of groundwater Arsenic contamination of groundwater is a form of groundwater pollution which is often due to naturally occurring high concentrations of arsenic in deeper levels of groundwater. It is a high-profile problem due to the use of deep tube wells for ...

in eastern India and Bangladesh. Hussam started working on this problem in 1993.The Mason Gazette
Hussam at Work to Curb Arsenic Poisoning in Bangladesh
, 16 June 1999. His final innovation is a simple, maintenance-free system that uses sand, charcoal, bits of brick and shards of a type of cast iron. The filter removes almost every trace of arsenic from the

well water A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. ...

. The wells brought fresh

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...

to farmers and others who previously had been drinking from bacteria- and virus-laced ponds and mudholes.Professor Wins $1 Million Prize for Providing Clean Water, One Village at a Time
, Associated Press, 2/3/07. He also had to devise a way to find an accurate way to measure arsenic in water. This was achieved in the early of the mid-1990s. The

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

announced on February 1, 2007, that the 2007

Grainger challenge The Grainger challenge is a scientific competition to find an economical way to remove arsenic from arsenic-contaminated groundwater. This competition is being funded by the United States National Academy of Engineering and the Grainger Foundation ...

prize for sustainability would go to Hussam.

National Academies A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the humani ...

br>Press Release
accessed 5 February 2007. Hussam's invention is already in use today, preventing serious health problems in residents of the professor's native Bangladesh. This includes a $1 million award, which Hussam plans to use most of to distribute the filters to needy communities around the world. Hussam said he plans to use 70 percent of his prize so the filters can be distributed to needy communities. He said 25 percent will be used for more research, and 5 percent will be donated to GMU. The 2007 sustainability prize is funded by the Grainger Foundation of Lake Forest, Illinois, and the contest was set up to target the arsenic problem. Among the criteria for winning was an affordable, reliable and environmentally friendly solution to the arsenic problem that did not require electricity. His younger brothers are Dr. Abul Barkat and Dr. AKM Munir.

Education

* BSc (honors) in chemistry,

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

, 1975 * MSc in chemistry, University of Dhaka, 1976 * PhD in analytical chemistry from

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

, Pennsylvania, 1982.

Professional positions

* Director, Center for Clean Water and Sustainable Technologies, George Mason University * Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, George Mason University * Visiting research scholar at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

and at Case Western Reserve University.

Scientific papers

Professor Hussam has published and presented over 100 scientific papers in international journals, proceedings, and books.

Honors and awards

* Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) by

in 2009. * Professor Hussam was awarded one of the highest engineering prizes known as the 2007 Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability from the US

(NAE) for the Sono arsenic filter which is now used by thousands of people in the affected areas of Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. * He was recognized by the ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine with a Global Heroes of the Environment 2007 Award * The Outstanding American by Choice Award by US Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2008 * Distinguished Alumni Award for "creativity, leadership, and accomplishments" by the Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh * His present research on the measurement of trace arsenic, aquatic chemistry of arsenic in groundwater, and the development of a simple arsenic filters has been recognized through international publications and accolades. His work is now described in chemistry and engineering text books and cited as one of the most significant contributions in water purification technologies.

References

External links

*
2007 Grainger Challenge Prize Gold Award Winner
National Academy of Engineering
Invention description at GMU website
*

br>Press Release
accessed February 5, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hussam, Abul Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Centreville, Virginia 21st-century American chemists 20th-century American inventors 21st-century American inventors Bangladeshi emigrants to the United States Abul Hussam Abul Hussam George Mason University faculty Scientists from Virginia University of Pittsburgh alumni People from Kushtia District