Five Post-secondary Students Win Grants for Innovative Environmental Research

March 2011, Calgary, AB – Five students from Canadian universities are the recipients of the 2011 ECO Canada Student Awards. These awards, which attracted applications from across the country, recognize the excellence in environment-related research being carried out by post-secondary students in Canada.

Each of the five recipients will receive a grant worth $1,000 and the opportunity to present their research to environmental industry leaders during the Americana, a biennial trade fair and conference on business and the environment. The winners will receive their awards at the trade fair, which is being held in Montreal from March 22-24, 2011.

“These awards give Canadian students a chance to showcase their ideas for the long-term sustainability of Canada’s environment,” said Grant Trump, President and CEO of ECO Canada. “The innovative research of these young people represents the future of the environmental sector in this country, and beyond.”

By showcasing the winning students and their research at Americana, ECO Canada hopes to continue the dialogue between the academic community and industry, which is critical to the ongoing success of the environmental sector in Canada as a whole.

The five recipients of the 2011 ECO Canada Student Awards are:

Eyad Jamaleddine, McGill University, for his research on: “Composting Bioreactors.”

Dalal Hanna, University of Ottawa, for: “Singing Higher to be Heard? The Effect of Anthropogenic Noise on Red-Winged Blackbird Signals.”

Erin Jaggard, Queen’s University, for: “Carbon Sequestration under Switchgrass Production in Southeastern Ontario.”

Varun Gupta, University of Toronto, for: “Prevalence and global significance of anaerobic methane oxidation in freshwater ecosystem.”

Nathan Park, University of Northern British Columbia, for: “Enhanced biogas production by anaerobic co-digestion of fruit and vegetable waste and sewer sludge- A full scale study.”