Penton's Waste360 Group Announces Award Winners from the 2014 Global Waste Management Symposium

NEW YORK, July 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Penton's Waste360 Group—which serves the $85-billion solid waste and recycling industry through WasteExpo and Waste360—has announced eight award-winners from the 2014 Global Waste Management Symposium, held June 22-25 in Orlando, Florida.

"This year's Symposium was a great success, with a 35% increase in participation from the prior one," said Mark Hickey, Market Leader of the Waste Industry Group. "We look forward to continuing to grow this biennial event in 2016." 

More than 100 oral and poster presentations (pre-vetted by the event's committee) were held during the three-day conference. The sessions showcased both applied and fundamental research and case studies, all within the realm of waste management. 

The event's Award Committee reviewed all of the presentations and selected eight winners to receive a monetary prize and top honors.

In the category of "Oral presentations (non-student)," first place went to Florentino De la Cruz of North Carolina State for his presentation entitled "Chemical Changes during Anaerobic Decomposition of Lignocellulose under Mesophilic and Thermophilic Conditions." De la Cruz's talk was part of the Anaerobic Digestion session of the event.

Second and third place in the non-student category went to Nicole Berge, University of South Carolina (for participation in the Emerging Contaminants session) and Kevin Torrens, Brown and Caldwell (for participation in the Leachate Treatment session), respectively. 

In the category of "Student oral presentations," Stephanie Bolyard of the University of Central Florida took the top prize for her presentation on "Pump and Treat Aerobic Flushing Bioreactor Landfill" (which fell within the Bioreactor Landfill session). 

Second and third place in the student category went to Phillip Pressley, NC State (for participation in the Thermal Processing of Waste session) and Paige Wilson, Colorado State (for participation in the Anaerobic Digestion session), respectively. 

Two awards were also announced for poster presenters. Debra Kanter was awarded first place for her poster on "Definitions Matter: Understanding State Recycling Goals and Assessing their Achievability." Second place went to Mohan Dangi, California State-Fresno. 

"We celebrate these individuals whose wonderful work is furthering scientific innovation and technology within our industry," said Hickey. 

"The GWMS event is one of the largest technical conferences on solid waste in the U.S.  This year we had the highest number of presentations since the event began in 2008, over 100+, and there were a lot of very good talks. I congratulate this year's winners!," noted Bryan Staley, President of the Environmental Research and Education Foundation and co-chair of the GWMS Technical Committee.

The next Global Waste Management Symposium takes place in 2016; information will be posted to www.wastesymposium.com as it become available. 

About Penton's Waste360 Group: Penton's Waste360 Group harnesses the power of its many properties to serve the $85 billion solid waste and recycling industry. The industry widely consumes this content in the form of live events, online learning and digital opportunities and more—and includes: Waste360, WasteExpo, The Global Waste Management Symposium, The Healthcare Waste Conference, The WasteExpo Investor Summit, Waste360 Online Education, the Circular File and other topical and timely e-newsletters. For more information, visit www.waste360.com.

About Penton: Penton drives performance for more than sixteen million professionals each and every day. They rely on us to deliver: Insights, information & workflow tools to inform critical business decisions; networking & community to engage them with industry peers & partners; and data & marketing services to advance their business performance & deliver ROI. They look to Penton to power the possibilities.

Penton is a growth company with a track-record of strong performance and success and is backed by its co-owners: MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP.

For additional information on the company and its businesses, visit www.penton.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Liz Bothwell, Marketing Director, Penton, [email protected], 203.943.0006.

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