Mar 19, 2026
IAK employee receives IFWW Sponsorship Award 2026
from left to right: Ulrike Franzke (Board Member of Stadtentwässerungsbetriebe Köln), award winner Dr. Eric Bollinger, award winner Maik Siegel and Hermann Stepkes (IFWW Managing Director)
Maik Siegel, a current employee of the Institute of Waste Management and Circular Economy, was awarded this year's IFWW sponsorship prize for his outstanding master's thesis at the 59th Essen Conference on Water Management from March 4 to 6, 2026.
The topic of his thesis was "Utilization of the phototrophic purple non-sulfur bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris for carbon removal from synthetic wastewater as part of a multi-step wastewater treatment process".
Maik Siegel is currently working on a research project on the standardization of greenhouse gas accounting in the waste management industry.
The IFWW sponsorship award is donated by the Institute for the Promotion of Water Quality and Water Quantity Management and honors outstanding scientific work by early-career researchers.