ABO Announces Winners of the 2020 Young Algae Researcher Awards

Six student scientists were presented with this year’s Young Algae Researcher Awards for their contributions to fields of algae biology and engineering at the virtual 2020 Algae Biomass Summit.

Each year ABO presents these awards to recognize outstanding research projects by early-career scientists that are discovering the potential for algae to address a number of challenges in energy, human health, climate change, agriculture and more.

A panel of judges evaluated posters presented at the Summit based on six key criteria: presentation, methodology, data analysis, poster integrity and the presentation of the poster by the presenter.

The Young Algae Research Awards are presented to winners for posters submitted to all four of the Summit’s tracks: Biology; Engineering & Analysis; Products & Markets; and Finance, Policy & Education.

The 2020 awards went to:

First place:

Natasha Gunawan, University of California San Diego (United States)

Rapid Biodegradation of Renewable Polyurethane Foams

Second place:

Ezequiel Hansel, Federal University of Bahia (Brazil)

Clay Ceramic Bioreactor: A Novel System For The Production Of Microalgae Biomass

Third place:

Magdalini Tsarpali, University of South Florida (United States)

Lipid Extraction of Microalgae and Hydrothermal Carbonization of the Residual Algal Biomass for Sustainable Hydrochar Production

Fourth place:

Aurélien Parsy, Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (France)

Toxicity of Metals and Organic Compounds from Produced Water on Marine Microalgae Cultures

Many of the posters presented at the Summit can be viewed by the public here.

Congratulations to these winners! ABO judges were impressed by all of this year’s poster submissions and look forward to more contributions from all of the participants.