Mr Md. Abul Kalam Azad, a graduate from Bangladesh, is the first former student of Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences to be awarded a doctorate at the University of Bonn.
After graduating, Md. Abul Kalam Azad began his doctoral studies at the Graduate School of the University of Bonn. Under the supervision of Prof. Dr Wilhelm Barthlott, Professor of Systematics and Biodiversity Research at the University of Bonn, and Prof. Dr Kerstin Koch, Professor of Biology and Nanobiotechnology at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Mr Azad’s doctoral thesis investigated plant surfaces and their ability to extract water from fog.
In his doctoral thesis, entitled ‘Fog Collection on Plant Surfaces and Biomimetic Applications’, he demonstrated how modifying the surface structures of so-called fog collectors can significantly increase the extraction of water from fog. The ‘biomimetic’ models, developed on the basis of plant models, are intended for use in follow-up projects to develop more efficient fog-collecting nets, with the aim of using them to obtain drinking water, particularly in very arid coastal deserts.
