Emily McGlohn of Rural Studio, along with Aurélie Frolet and Jillian Maxcy-Brown, has been awarded the 2024 Research Prize by the SOM Foundation. The award supports their work with rural wastewater treatment, allowing the team to create a wastewater design manual for stakeholders and municipalities in the Black Belt. Wastewater treatment is a pressing need in rural areas of the South, where septic tanks (the usual treatment method) do not work as effectively in the hard clay soil. Emily shares that this award allows them “to extend what Newbern is already doing—trying to provide wastewater treatment to people who want and need it.” Director and Wiatt Professor Andrew Freear calls this work “perhaps the most important project Rural Studio has ever undertaken,” and points out that “without five years of Emily championing the project with care, empathy, and dogged determination, our neighbors’ kids here would continue playing in yards with raw sewage.”

The manual will provide information about the history and design of wastewater treatment and suggest tools for rural communities to address this issue. The SOM Foundation supports designers like the wastewater team who are pursuing innovative solutions to key topics of our time. Emily adds, “Access to water and sanitation are non-negotiable, which means things below the ground are just as important as what’s built on the top. The key to innovation is linking good design, infrastructure, and the understanding that all people deserve access to fresh water and proper sanitation.” Sharing what they’ve learned from the demonstration project with other communities is Emily’s “top goal.” She continues, “We’re so excited to win the SOM Foundation Prize, and we can’t wait to get started!”

All three grant co-authors are Auburn University faculty. Emily McGlohn, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, and Aurélie Frolet, Assistant Professor of Architecture, both teaching in the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Planning. Jillian Maxcy-Brown is an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.

Learn more about the SOM Foundation Research Prize at aub.ie/som.