2020 CFFAE Ivarson Soils Scholarship Awarded

OTTAWA: The Canadian Foundation for Food and Agricultural Education (CFFAE) is pleased to announce, the 2020 recipient of the Karl C. Ivarson Soils Scholarship is Joanne Thiessen Martens, a PhD student in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Manitoba. Her research focuses on optimizing the use of struvite, a naturally produced mineral found in waste water, as a source of phosphorus fertilizer in organic cropping systems. Not long after her 1999 graduation with a degree in Agroecology, Joanne embarked on a three-year, volunteer experience in rural Brazil (2000-2003), where she provided technical and organizational support to a small, newly formed association of organic fruit and vegetable farmers. Since returning to Canada, she has devoted her time to agricultural research, extension and education, focusing on nutrient management for organic farming systems. After completing her Ph.D. program, Joanne hopes to pursue a career in research and extension, using a co-design approach that integrates new scientific understanding with farmers’ experiential knowledge. She hopes to advance the knowledge of ecologically based soil and crop management, to enhance the sustainability and resilience of both organic and conventional production systems. Her research interests include: intensification of ecological processes, to increase agricultural productivity, nutrient use efficiency and soil health; strategic use of soil amendments, to restore productivity in degraded soils; and enhancement of nutrient recycling on local and broader scales. The Karl C. Ivarson Soils Scholarship is awarded annually, to a student entering the second or subsequent year of graduate studies in soil science in agriculture, agroecology, resource management, environment, geology or other related disciplines, at a Canadian university. The Canadian Foundation for Food and Agricultural Education is a registered national charity, providing scholarship programs, to foster the study of agricultural and food sciences since 1987.