Colin Rivers wins the Best Poster Award at NZ and Australia Soils Conference

Congratulations to Colin Rivers from the Fertiliser Technology Research Centre (FTRC) on his best poster award (Australian) at the Joint NZ Society of Soil Science and Soil Science Australia Conference in Queenstown NZ in December.

Colin’s work looked at fertiliser coatings designed to prevent the ingress of water droplets in highly humid storage conditions which cause caking and product breakdown. He found a relationship between contact angle measurements of coatings on microscope slides and the moisture uptake of fertilizers with these coatings applied. A large range of coatings can be screened using this method. His poster entitled “Coating contact angle as a predictor of fertilizer stability in highly humid conditions’’ received a lot of attention at the conference.

Colin is well known on the Waite Campus as he began working in the Agronomy Department in 1967 and the Soil Science Department later that year culminating in 50 years’ service. His passion for his work is amazing. Colin has enjoyed helping hundreds of postgraduate students with their studies, has a dogged determination to solve problems and in recent years has produced many new laboratory granulated fertiliser formulations for the FTRC.

FTRC would like to congratulate Colin for this prestigious award and thank him for his years of dedicated service past and present.