SANTA CLARA, California: On 15 November 2012, Fulbright-Nehru Environmental Leadership Program 2011-12 alumnus, Arup Sengupta received the Intel Environment Award, part of the Tech Awards awarded by The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. Each year, the Tech Awards honor innovators and entrepreneurs who make a difference around the world in education, medicine, struggling economies and social services. Under the leadership of Sengupta, a team at Lehigh University developed a technology to provide arsenic-safe drinking water through installation of arsenic removal units in remote village locations using regenerable adsorbents. Over 200,000 people including school children have benefitted by his innovation in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal and Vietnam.

During his Fulbright tenure, Sengupta worked at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, Karnataka and evolved a community based sustainable approach to mitigate the Arsenic and Fluoride crisis in ground water in India. He is a Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Arup Sengupta (right) receiving the Intel Environment Award