June 4, 1996 - Tom Davey, Publisher of Environmental Science & Engineering magazine was presented with the 1996 Harvey Southam Award at the University of Toronto during the annual banquet of Canadian Business Press. The citation noted that Davey has worked on three continents as a writer on newspapers and magazines as well as a radio and television reporter in Australia. Winner of national and international awards for his investigative commentaries, he is also the author of three books.
He has worked as a reporter and editor for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Melbourne and Hobart; as a magazine writer in Londonís Fleet Street and as Publications & Science Editor at the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto. He wrote extensively for many environmental publications before launching Enviromental Science & Engineering magazine with his son Steve in 1988.
His articles written in 1969 were the first to warn of the serious health potential problems in herbicide spraying in Viet Nam. Although critical of US policies, the articles gained him a J.H. Neal Award from the American Business Press in New York, the first ever won by a writer outside the United States. A second Neal award followed later. Environmental professional bodies also honoured him.
His articles on drinking water and public health led to honours from two of the largest and oldest environmental bodies in the U.S, the Denver-based American Water Works Association and the Washington-based Water Environment Federation. Both honoured him for his contributions to the environmental sciences.
His articles on eutrophication led to an amendment to the Canada Water Act, restricting the amount of phosphates in laundry detergents. Another investigative piece on corrosion inhibitors in drinking water led to questions being asked in the Ontario Legislature, ultimately leading to piping retrofits in many apartments.
After he had written extensively on PCBs and other toxic problems, the World Health Organization invited Davey to make a presentation at an international conference on toxic spills in Rome. He has also lectured on environmental issues at the University of Toronto, Queen's University, Humber College and Trent University. He has written three books, the most recent For whom the polls tell*
Since Environmental Science & Engineering magazine was launched over eight years ago in Aurora, Ontario, the magazine and its staff have won several awards including two Environment Canada awards. Davey has written on environmental issues for many newspapers including: The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star. The Toronto Sun, The Kingston Whig Standard, The Financial Post, The Muskoka Sun and many other media. He has also given many presentations on environmental subjects at the University of Toronto, Humber College, Queen's and Trent Universities, the citation said.
(*ISBN 0-920891-02-0)
1996 Stockholm Water Prize awarded to Dr. Jörg Imberger of Australia
Dr. Jörg Imberger, Director of the Centre of Water Research at the University of Western Australia, will be awarded the 1996 Stockholm Water Prize. The Prize is (US)$150,000 and will be awarded by H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in August.
Dr. Imberger receives the Prize for creating a computerized predictive analysis model correlating water motion research with biochemical data. This is done to enable scientists to monitor and improve the sustainable capacity of lakes and coastal regions. "He is a recognized leader in the field of environmental engineering and his research results are applied all over the world", says Bo Krantz, Secretary General of The Stockholm Water Foundation.
Dr. Imberger's extensive research activity and his ability to include interaction between physical, chemical and biological processes, has opened ways for understanding and predicting water quality in lakes and coastal waters, and for better management of natural waters.
Designing plants to clear heavy metal contaminations
By discovering how a plant unique to the island of Lesbos mops up nickel, Oxford scientists hope to design others that draw metals out of soil much more cheaply and cleanly than is possible with existing techniques. Dr. Andrew Smith and Ute Kramer from the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Oxford, have found that Alyssum lesbiacum absorbs nickel very effectively from the soil, shuttling the metal upwards into its green tissues above ground. Like other "hyperaccumulators", it absorbs levels of metal that would kill most other plants.
No one knows why some plants accumulate metals instead of keeping them out, but hyperaccumulators could be very useful in environmental cleanup operations, because they take metals out of the soil and store them in shoots and leaves which could simply be harvested and disposed of in landfill sites for example.
"It might even be possible to extract and recycle the metals," said Dr. Smith. In research that could accelerate the development of these techniques, Smith and Kramer have discovered that A. Lesbiacum mops up nickel using the amino acid histidine.
Nitrogen atoms in the amino acid carry space electrons which they donate to the electron-hungry nickel ion, forming a strong bond as they do so. The nickel is then imprisoned inside the histidine's molecular cage. The scientists are now looking at the possibility of genetically engineering large fast-growing plants as more efficient hyperaccumulators.
How the Berlin Wall was recycled
Recycling firms have recorded some remarkable achievements in recent years. The following three mammoth projects were scheduled for discussion at IFAT 96 in Munich, May 7-11.
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