Hume Fellowship

Recipients of Hume Fellowship in 1994

Andrew Shilton

The third Fellowship was awarded in 1994 to Andrew Shilton, a 28 year old BE graduate from Auckland University and Master of Technology in Biotechnology with 1st class Honours from Massey University. Andrew's main specialty has been in wastewater technology. He was involved in research, development and design of wastewater treatment systems for Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries at Invermay in Dunedin before working for W S Atkins at Exeter in UK. Here he was responsible for the design and evaluation of various types of sewage systems including oxidation ditches and biological filter/reed bed systems. Since 1993 Andrew has been a Lecturer in the Department of Process and Environmental Engineering at Massey University.

Andrew's study was in three parts over a four-year period. The first part was completed when he attended the 3rd Conference of the International Association on Water Quality (IAWQ) in Brazil in March 1995. At this conference, specialising in waste stabilisation pond technology, Andrew was able to meet many of the world's leading researchers. He was able to visit experimental research stations at Extrabes and Catingueira in Brazil and Argentina. From October 1996 to February 1997 Andrew then spent four months working with Professor Duncan Mara at the University of Leeds in UK. He visited installations in Israel and Jordan where high rate oxidation pond systems have been developed and met academic researchers in pond technology. He was also able to visit the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok to see research and teaching work in technologies important in the Asia region. On his return to NZ in 1997 he called at The University of California, Berkley where he met academics researching high rate algal ponds.  In 1999 Andrew spent a further study period at the University of Aalborg in Denmark where a large research programme in wastewater and the hydraulics of wastewater treatment systems was being undertaken. Andrew's study was related to the completion of a PhD at Massey University.

Andrew has used the knowledge gained from his Hume Fellowship to further his research work into oxidation pond technology by producing a manual "Guidelines for the Hydraulic Design of Waste Stabilisation Ponds". More recently he edited and partly wrote a new textbook released by a London publisher called "Pond Treatment Technology".