Before Kahao Lim began his full-time role at Stantec as a wastewater engineer-in-training, he pursued a PhD in Civil Engineering at KSU. And before he even entered university at all, his growing up entailed first hand experiences with drought and water restrictions. He has always known water as a rare commodity, and that marked the start of a lifelong passion.

Through his PhD, Lim was able to plunge deep into the field of wastewater treatment, and explore processes through a more fundamental perspective. The flexible curriculum at KSU meant that he could learn through a cross-disciplinary approach. He took classes in different departments, and that would cultivate a broad range of knowledge valuable to his projects.

Speaking of projects — there’s so much more to learning at KSU than staying put in the classroom. For Lim, that looked like operating on a pilot-scale anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR), a technology that intensifies wastewater treatment, where he learnt how to process engineering design. Learning took him outside engineering too; like reading and writing manuscripts for journal publication, and taking classes in sociology and policy at the National Research Traineeship which would lead to working with politicians and policymakers in Arizona.

Since graduating, Lim’s been making waves in the industry. This year, he was awarded the “Young Professional of the Year” award at Arizona Water Association’s annual conference.

“Taking classes in areas outside my area of expertise kept me humble and motivated by reminding me what it is like to be a beginner that lacks skills and knowledge, but has the passion to learn and improve,” says Lim. “It can help you appreciate things in life that you perhaps would not have been exposed to, which in turn, helps to keep the creativity flowing!”