Former civil engineering grad student honoured for thesis

Nicole McLellan, who recently graduated with an MASc in civil engineering, captured second place in the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Academic Achievement competition for best master’s thesis. The annual award acknowledges water-related theses at the master's and doctoral levels from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. McLellan’s research, entitled “Factors Effecting the Transport of Pathogens & Pathogen Surrogates in Saturated Porous Media: Implications for Natural & Engineered Drinking Water Filters,” was funded by CWN and NSERC.

While a student, she received the prestigious AWWA LARS Master’s Scholarship that is awarded each year to one recipient from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. McLellan's graduate work was supervised by Monica Emelko, a Waterloo civil and environmental engineering professor.