ACE Fresh Ideas Poster Competition
Students & Young Professionals
ACE Fresh Ideas Poster Competition
Participation
Participants in this competition are students & YPs that have competed at their local Section conference and were selected to compete at ACE among the other Section champions.
ACE Fresh Ideas Poster Participants receive a free full ACE Registration to compete at this competition. Please check with your Section to determine if they will underwrite your travel/hotel fees.
Want to know how to compete at your Section? Find your local Section contact here or email students@awwa.org.
2026 Winners
The American Water Works Association has announced the winners of its annual poster competition. AWWA’s “Fresh Ideas” Poster Contest debuted at the Annual Conference and Exposition (ACE) more than a decade ago as part of its students and young professionals programming.
First Place: Gema Diaz Bukvic, University of Missouri, Missouri Section
Novel Cellulose-Based Adsorbents for Sustainable PFAS Removal in Drinking Water Treatment
Second Place: Kadmiel Adusei, Virginia Tech, Virginia Section
Chlorocyanurates As Alternative Disinfectant: Advantages and Trade-offs in Disinfection Byproducts Formation
Third Place: Catherine Ferry, Villanova University, Pennsylvania Section
Microplastics Sampling in the Mohawk River: Implications for Drinking Water Source Monitoring
ACE26 Fresh Ideas Poster Competition
Past Recipients
First Place: Molly Bledsoe, Minnesota Section
Second Place: Michael Thompson, New Jersey Section
Third Place: Julia Kendall, Alabama-Mississippi Section
First Place: Hatice Yildirim, South Carolina Section
Second Place: Kalani De Silva, Ontario Section
Third Place: Deandrah Cameron, New Jersey Section
First Place – Lan Cheng
Poster: “Compare and combine: PFAS removal by granular activated carbon adsorption and anion exchange”
Second Place – William Fagan
Poster: “Kinetics and mechanism of ultrasonic defluorination of fluorotelomer sulfonates”
Third Place – Tom Howard
Poster: “Spotting HABs from Space: Estimating Chlorophyll-a Concentrations Using Satellite Imagery and Machine Learning Techniques”
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