Lebanese doctor Jean Al-Ashqar has succeeded in becoming the first Lebanese to win the Green Talents 2019 competition award during a festive award ceremony at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Berlin for his outstanding contributions worldwide to create a sustainable society.
Dr. Jean Al-Ashqar was selected out of 837 applicants from 97 countries and honored among 25 young researchers from 21 different countries as Green Talents. He was given this prestigious award for his research findings on waste management and green energy production.
“I’m proud to be one of the 25 Green Talents, chosen among 837 researchers from 97 countries. Glad to represent my lovely country in such an International event,” Dr. Al-Ashaqar stated on his Facebook.
Dr. Jean Al-Achkar is an experienced scientist and a holder of a Ph.D. in chemistry. He extensively researched the production of bioenergy by anaerobic digestion, which is a promising way to reduce the use of fossil resources on one hand and to make good use of organic waste and industrial by-products on the other.
As per Green Talents, Dr. Al-Ashkar focussed in his research “on researching the usage of anaerobic digestion to valorize organic by-products, to understand the biochemical parameters affecting the bioenergy production, as well as to intensify the process using several mechanical, chemical and physical pretreatments.”
In his research as well, “he closely studied the use of grape pomace from wine production and olive pomace from oil production in his home country Lebanon. He developed and realized a prototype bioreactor and worked on the optimization of the inward processes.”
They also stated, “In further studies, Jean aimed at valorizing local microalgae and lipid-extracted residues, as well as whey cheese from dairy industries and coffee grounds, for bioenergy production. Moreover, he focussed on the green treatment of sludge produced from wastewater treatment plants.”
The Green Talents’ Award is an international and prestigious prize offered by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education. It offers the winners that come from different outstanding scientific disciplines an invitation to participate in the “Green Talents – International Forum for High Potentials in Sustainable Development” which is a two-week trip to Germany’s sustainability hot spots.
Dr. Jean Al-Ashkar offered this award in the first place to his country Lebanon, “Despite the fact that the situation is very critical now, I believe that it will rise again as the phoenix did. United, we can make the change.”