Congratulations to Siddhartha Roy, recipient of Virginia Tech’s Alumni Association Graduate Student Service Excellence Award 2016

Siddhartha Roy, a Ph.D. student of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Water INTERface program at Virginia Tech, received the Alumni Association’s Graduate Student Service Excellence Award on March 24th, 2016 at the Graduate School Banquet. This award is in recognition of outstanding service in “promoting the public good” for his work on the Flint Water Crisis. Each year only one graduate student across campus is selected for this prestigious award.

Sid is currently enrolled in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Virginia Tech as a doctoral student since 2012. His research focus is on investigating the mechanistic and chemical variables influencing flow-induced failures, or erosion corrosion of copper and nonleaded brass plumbing materials utilized in potable water infrastructure. He has also evaluated the effectiveness of public health communication of US EPA mandated water quality reports as part of a Water IGEP independent study with fellow CEE doctoral student Katherine Phetxumphou, Dr. Brenda Davy (HNFE) and Dr. Andrea Dietrich (CEE). Between 2013-15, as part of an EWB-USA Virginia Tech team, Sid helped design and partially implement a wastewater system for a boarding school in Xix, Guatemala, which houses more than 150 students and staff. The new wastewater system, on completion, will help the school to foster a cleaner environment for education and relieve potential contamination issues for groundwater in the area. He also raised over $26,000 from Boeing, Bechtel and Pratt & Whitney by writing grant proposals to fund the EWB-USA work.

Since August 2015, Siddhartha has served as the student leader and communications director of the Flint Water Study Team to help resolve scientific uncertainties associated with drinking water issues in Flint, MI. The 25-member team’s work (led by Dr. Marc Edwards) exposed widespread lead contamination in the city’s water supply, led to declaration of a national “Public Health Emergency” by President Barack Obama, garnered hundreds of millions of dollars in relief for Flint residents, and informed a long overdue debate on “safe” water in America. As the student leader, Sid went to Flint to sample the water from homes of residents, helped with preparing and processing of lead-test kits, launched www.flintwaterstudy.org, read through thousands of emails and documents of state and federal agencies obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests alongside Dr. Edwards, communicated with Flint residents in person and on the web, and launched a GoFundMe page that has raised over $97,000 for their group’s public-focused research. He also produced a mini-documentary on the vital role played by environmental engineers in protecting public health and the environment (as evidenced by the Flint experience) and the video won a national award (2nd place) from the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP). Because of the team’s efforts, Flint switched back to Detroit water in October 2015 and started adding federally mandated corrosion control chemicals to decrease lead release from the pipes and plumbing into consumer’s tap water. Based on a follow-up sampling effort in March 2016, the concentrations of lead in Flint’s water is gradually dropping; however, the water is still not safe to drink.

In the future, Sid will continue his leadership and contribution to Flint Water Crisis until (and possibly even after) he graduates. He feels that his PhD experience has been very unique — almost “worth killing for” and being at the forefront of the Flint battle is the “best thing I have done in my entire life.” Working with Dr. Edwards has been extremely gratifying for him, and he couldn’t have asked for a more brilliant and kind mentor. After graduation, Sid plans to continue working in the field of water, possibly at the nexus of public health- development-drinking water. As he said, “I personally derive meaning from the work I do, and there is nothing more fulfilling than being able to make a difference in the lives of your fellow human beings. What else would you get up in the morning for?”