The Ed Archuleta Desalter Scholarship

About the Scholarship

In 2016, the Board of Directors of the Texas Desalination Association initiated a scholarship fund for students at institutions of higher learning who are engaged in water resource planning and/or research involving one of the various aspects of brackish groundwater or seawater desalination. The scholarship fund is named for Ed Archuleta, who was also honored in 2016 by the Association as its Texas Desalination Pioneer.

About Ed Archuleta

Edmund G. “Ed” Archuleta was manager of the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board from January 1989 until his retirement in January 2013. He was responsible for all aspects of water, wastewater, reclaimed water service, and storm water to the greater El Paso metropolitan area. He reported to and implemented strategic policies set by the seven-member Public Service Board. Ed was then named the Transition and Special Projects Manager for the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board from January through July 2013. Ed joined University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) as Director of Water Initiatives on September 1, 2013. Read more.

Previous Scholarship Recipients

•  2016 – Malynda Cappelle, PhD, University of Texas at El Paso
•  2017 – Savanna Smith, Undergraduate, University of Texas at Austin
• 2018 – Amit Jain, Rice University

Call for 2019 Scholarship Applicants

$1,500 Scholarship Award
Coordinated by the Texas Desalination Association
Application deadline: Thursday, August 1, 2019

Students are eligible to receive this Award one time only, past recipients need not apply.

Scholarship Criteria

Students must submit all requested materials listed below and meet the following criteria:

• Be a full-time student enrolled in a four-year, accredited, degree-granting college or university (submit proof)
• Be attending a university in Texas, OR must be a Texas resident if attending an out-of-state university
  • Submit an unofficial transcript that reflects GPA and credit hour requirements (if transcript does not reflect the following, please provide additional proof):
  • Completed 60 credit hours or working on advanced degrees at the time of application
• Attained an overall grade point average of 3.0 or better (on a 4.0 point scale)
• Submit an essay from one of the five essay prompts below. (2-page minimum, 5-page maximum; 12-point type in Calibri, Cambria or Times New Roman; 1.5 line spacing)
  1. Organizations and policymakers interpret desalination in different manners, from an engineering process to a philosophy to achieve water security. As a student, how do you define “desalination”, and what has shaped your perspective?
  2. What policy changes do you feel are necessary to encourage the adoption of seawater desalination in Texas?
  3. How can policy encourage industrial users to pursue desalination and water reuse in Texas?
  4. What barrier do you feel limits the use of brackish groundwater desalination for small municipalities: policy, technology, or both?
  5. Do you feel that incremental improvements to existing technologies are needed to enable water reuse in Texas, or entirely new breakthrough approaches?
• Submit a W‐9 Form

Timeline

Online Application

Submit all materials or any questions to custsrv@texasdesal.com.

If you would like to submit a research poster to Texas Desal 2019, you can find instructions here.