2014 CNRS Innovation Medal laureate: Valentina Lazarova

Valentina Lazarova, 58, is a senior expert and project manager at Suez Environnement and a specialist in the field of wastewater treatment and recycling. "Being able to reuse these effluents is a major geopolitical, socio-economic and ecological challenge on a global scale,"she points out. Viewed as one of the world's leading experts in this strategic area, this process engineer has filed seven patents and published some 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. As a winner of the 2014 innovation medal awarded by the CNRS, she takes a look back on the innovative solutions she has devised and which are implemented in numerous facilities. For example, she has developed new processes for removing carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater, optimising disinfection performance by ozonation (ozone injection) and ultraviolet radiation. In a context of scarcity of water resources and global climate change, these advances contribute to preserving our "blue gold", safeguarding biodiversity and reducing the economic impact of droughts.