Scientists from China, Russia, U.S. win rain enhancement award in UAE

ABU DHABI, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The UAE government on Wednesday honored at the ongoing World Future Energy Summit three winners for their scientific works on rain enhancement.

Lulin Xue from the Hua Xin Chuang Zhi Science and Technology LLC in Beijing, China, won the award for his project entitled "Using Advanced Experimental -- Numerical Approaches to Untangle Rain Enhancement."

The Chinese scientist said "we do not invent anything new, but we try to look into the fundamental science to understand how these factors which lead to rain are working in nature."

In his acceptance speech, he dedicated his award to his wife "for her constant and tremendous support."

The other two winners who share the prize money of 5 million U.S. dollars are Eric Frew from the University of Colorado, and Ali Abshaev, from the Hail Suppression Research Center in Russia.

Frew was honored for his project dealing with targeted observation and seeding using autonomous unmanned aircraft systems.

Abshaev, on the other hand, won his award for a project examining the creation of updrafts for the formation of artificial clouds and rainfall.

Ahmed Juma Al-Zaabi, Deputy Minister of Presidential Affairs in the UAE and Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the National Center of Meteorology awarded the three researchers.

In his key-note speech, Al-Zaabi stressed that the Gulf state that rarely see rains is devoted to find innovative and sustainable solutions to address the issue of water security.

Therefore the UAE aims to constantly cooperate with top scientists, researchers and leading institutions in this vital domain.

Al-Zaabi added "We hope that by combining our efforts, we will turn the outstanding ideas presented within this program from across the world into successful projects that benefit us all." Enditem