Abul Hussam () is the inventor of the Sono arsenic filter. He is a chemistry professor at

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

(GMU) in Fairfax, Virginia, 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 List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. 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. He has spent much of his career trying to devise a solution to the problem of arsenic contamination of groundwater in eastern India and Bangladesh. Hussam initially 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. The wells brought fresh

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

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 organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

announced on February 1, 2007, that the 2007 Grainger challenge prize for sustainability would go to Hussam. National Academiesbr>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 older brother is Abul Hashem and his younger brothers are Dr. Abul Barkat, Dr. AKM Munir, and Md Nurul Azam.

Education

* BSc (honors) in chemistry, University of Dhaka, 1975 * MSc in chemistry, University of Dhaka, 1976 * PhD in analytical chemistry from

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

, Pennsylvania, 1982.

Professional positions

* Director, Center for Clean Water and Sustainable Technologies,

* Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, George Mason University * Visiting research scholar at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

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 University of Dhaka 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 continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' 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
* National Academiesbr>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