SUNUM Seminar - Dr. Suphiya Khan - Water Safety
Today approximately 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water all around the world. In 2010, it was reported that about 1.8 billion people are consuming unsafe water. Fluoride (F) is the major contributor to the world water crisis, affecting about 200 million people worldwide. The rural population is much prone to F contamination as in some places the available techniques has not reached and if present are unaffordable. It is reported that around 24 countries are severely affected by high F concentration in drinking water. F is known to cause mottled enamel, osteoporosis, crippling skeletal fluorosis, thyroid change, growth retardation, kidney change and death. Currently, several methods have been developed to efficiently eliminate F from water including nanofiltration, reverse osmosis (RO), coagulation, electrocoagulation, electrochemical oxidation, ion exchange and adsorption. High cost and not user friendliness of mentioned water treatment techniques are the main reason for using untreated water for drinking purposes. Also, the available techniques have not reached the poor rural population and the far-off places. It is mostly available to urban population, with the majority of the rural poor people still out of its reach due to financial problems and physical access. Modifications in the existing methods for urban people will also be covered.
Presently, clean and safe drinking water is a prior requirement of the society. My talk will cover mainly the development of defluoridation technology has been done in my lab.
Simultaneously, I will give you the insight about our center activities and goals of “Center for Excellence on Water and Energy” of Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan, India. Brief outline of my current going projects and future plan.
Brief Biodata
Dr Suphiya Khan presently working as a Associate Professor in the department of Bioscience and
Biotechnology, Banasthali University, India. She has fourteen years of teaching and research experience.
Her strong background mainly relates to DNA fingerprinting, chemoprofiling, development of nanoadsorbents
and Fluoride (F) phytoremediation technology. She has received various awards viz DBTresearch
Associateship, young scientist By ISGBRD;ICAR, recognition award for research and teaching
and Indian National Academy of Sciences (INSA) international visiting scientist fellowship. Dr Khan has
been awarded as a principle investigator and co-investigator in various projects duly funded by different
funding agencies UGC, MHRD, DST and DBT. Currently, she is handling Center of excellence on Water
and Energy which is duly funded by MHRD with 2.5 crore rupees. She has also attracted grant of 8.5
crore from CSR Bajaj Foundation. Her work has been recognized internationally at various scientific
conferences and journals. She has also won travel grants by Department of Science and Technology,
Govt. of India. Recently, she has delivered invited talk at Hanzhou, China and Doha, Qatar. She has
published over 30 peer reviewed articles, published two books on DNA fingerprinting and
chemoprofiling. Dr Suphiya Khan’s research interest focused on development of cost effective
defluoridation technology for rural as well as urban people. She served as a reviewer of peer-reviewed
journals in the area of DNA fingerprinting and Fluoride contamination. In addition to research, Dr
Suphiya Khan is actively involved in teaching of undergraduate and post graduate students. This year
one of her student got young scientist award from all the three National Academies (INSA, NASI, INASc).
Dr Khan is the part of various governing bodies of University viz: Board of studies, Faculty of Science and
Academic council. She also delivered radio talks on career counseling and part of various Institutional
projects viz Women Technology Part (WTP), DST-FIST (Funds for improvement of various Science and
Technology Infrastructure) and DST-CURIE (Consolidation of University Research for Innovation and
Excellence in Women Universities). Further to this, Dr Khan has begun international collaborations with
University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Australia and Aston University, UK.