EREF awards eight scholarships for 2015

Program recognizes students with acadamic excellence and professional involvement.

  • October 16, 2015
  • REW Staff

The Board of Directors of the Environmental Research and Education Foundation (EREF), Raleigh, North Carolina, has announced the award of a record eight scholarships.

The eight 2015 EREF scholars and their respective research projects are:

  • Lori Clark, SUNY Stony Brook, Ph.D.: A novel treatment to hydrogen sulfide contaminated landfill gas
  • Laura Mast, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ph.D.: Mast is studying chelant-enhanced selective leaching and capture of rare earth metals from coal ash
  • Judd Larson, University of Wyoming, Ph.D.: Stimulating Autoinduction of Biofilm Growth to Enhance Cellulose Stabilization
  • Olga Kachook, Yale University, MS: Integrating zero waste and extended producer responsibility practices into corporate waste
  • Nicholas Hotzelt, Clemson University, MS: Landfill leachate valorization for commodity methane generation
  • Kat McCarthy, Robert P. Stearns/SCS Engineers Scholar 2015, Green Mountain College, MS: A strategy for organics diversion
  • Brent Perdue, University of Texas at Austin, MS: Analysis of municipal landfill diversion ordinances
  • Arlene Janousek, Simon Fraser University, MS: Comparing waste management impacts on conventional vs. organic food supply chains

The EREF scholarship program recognizes students with academic excellence, professional involvement and an interest in solid waste management issues at the doctoral and master’s levels. Doctoral/post-doctoral scholarships are given in memory of Francois Fiessinger, P.E., Ph.D., a graduate of Rutgers University, who was a founding director of the foundation; and by EREF.

Master’s scholarships are made possible by the late Robert P. Stearns, P.E., DEE of SCS Engineers and Robert J. Riethmiller of PTR Baler and Compactor Company. Additional scholarships include the Waste Industries Scholarship Honoring Lonnie C. Poole, Jr., an EREF founder and Director Emeritus, and the Carl J. Apicella of American Environmental Group, Inc.

EREF is a 501(c)3 class charity that funds and directs scientific research and educational initiatives for waste management practices to benefit industry participants and the communities they serve. For more information, visit www.erefdn.org.