University of British Columbia researcher Don Mavinic has received a 2010 $200,000 Synergy Award for Innovation from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada as a result of his collaboration with Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, Vancouver. The award recognizes Ostara’s technology, which recovers otherwise-polluting nutrients such as phosphorus and ammonia from wastewater and transforms them into environmentally friendly fertilizer. Ostara has three fully-operational commercial nutrient recovery facilities in the U.S. in Portland, Ore., Suffolk, Va., and York, Penn. as well as a demonstration scale facility in Edmonton, and is constructing facilities in Madison, Wisc., and Slough, U.K.
The Fertilizer Institute’s (TFI) Vice President of Government Relations, Katherine English, recently left her position to join Dow Chemical. She joined TFI in 2008 from the Capitol Hill Consulting Group, where she served as vice president and general counsel. Previously, she served as counsel for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.