Yuan was awarded the North Highland College Research Student of the Year for the 2018 – 2019 session for her PhD which evaluated the potential use of natural waste materials as low-cost biosorbents for the removal of pharmaceuticals from aqueous media.
While most current biosorption studies consider the synthesis of functionalized sorbents, or look at compounds from certain therapeutic groups, her work examined how materials that are abundant in nature, or are by-products from industry or agriculture can, with nominal processing, be applied to eliminate a wide range of pharmaceuticals compounds that may exert adverse eco-toxicological effects on human and wildlife, even at very low concentrations.
Yuan was out of the country when graduation took place so was awarded her certificate earlier in November by ERI Director Stuart Gibb and North Highland College UHI principal Donald MacBeath.
