Professors Grant Supports Compliance with Clean Water Act

MELBOURNE, FLA. – Ralph Turingan, Ph.D., Florida Tech professor of biological sciences, has earned a $194,000 grant from Kinectrics Inc. The grant
continues Turingan’s work at the university’s Institute for Marine Research in Vero Beach, to design and test protection systems for marine life. The
systems should help companies comply with an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule for the Clean Water Act and prevent fish and other aquatic life
entrapment in power plant intakes.

The funding supports Florida Tech biological sciences graduate students James Kerfoot and Vutheary Hean as full-time graduate assistants and Justin Anto,
Matthew Witenrich, Ronald Maliao, Alexandra Didoha and Bernice Maliao as part-time graduate assistants.
Turingan’s team has already assessed the entrapment of marine and freshwater organisms in three power plants. These are the Vero Beach Gas Power Plant,
Progress Energy Coal and Nuclear power plants in Crystal River and the Suwannee River Coal Power Plant in northern Florida.

Turingan earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Philippines, a master’s degree from the University of Rhode Island, and a doctoral degree
from the University of Puerto Rico. He has been on the Florida Tech faculty since 1995. He was a 2005-2006 Fulbright Scholar and led a marine fish biology
course at the University of the Philippines.

Kinectrics, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is nearly a century old. The company provides technical solutions to power companies, which affect
performance, the environment, safety and economics.