Two Students are Awarded Scholarships for Compost-Research Projects

The CCREF Board of Trustees announced the winners of this year's compost research scholarships for college students. The goal of the scholarship is to encourage more compost-related research, a core mission of the Foundation. The project for scholarship winner, Gerard Braun, left, from The Ohio State University in Wooster, OH, involves the development of a protocol for detection of low-level persistent herbicide (<10 ppb) in finished compost using plants in a bioassay procedure. Alex Thomas, right, the second student to receive a scholarship,  is a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. His project is looking at the issue of Chronic Wasting Disease. The plan is to investigate whether composting these infected carcasses will yield deactivation of the prion.