Julius Ratumo Toeri defends his doctoral dissertation

On November 16th 2017, Julius R. Toeri successfully defended his doctoral thesis entitled "Novel Chitosan Membranes for Removal of Heavy Metals from Wastewater" and was awarded a doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.).

With support mainly from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Kenya National Research Fund (NRF), Toeri successfully developed crosslinked chitosan-based films using synthesized azacrown ether. He showed that these materials are good candidates for removal of heavy metals from wastewater.

He conducted his research at the Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF) under the supervision of Prof. Marie-Pierre Laborie (PhD) and Prof. Dr. Harald Hillebrecht. His work has been published in three research articles.

Toeri joined the Chair of Forest Biomaterials at University of Freiburg in October 2012 with a Master of Philosophy degree in Inorganic Chemistry from Moi University (Kenya). He returns to his country of origin where he will resume his position as a lecturer in the School of Pure and Applied Sciences of Meru University of Sciences and Technology (Kenya).