Tulane University to award $1 million for new solution to global dead zones

WHAT:     Tulane University will award the $1 million grand prize in the Tulane Nitrogen Reduction Challenge, an international competition to find a significant, scalable solution to reduce nitrogen runoff from farming, a primary culprit behind massive annual “dead zones” in waters throughout the world.

WHO:      Tulane President Mike Fitts 
                Challenge Sponsor Phyllis Taylor, president of the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation
                Challenge finalists Adapt-N  of Ithaca, New York; Cropsmith of Farmer City, Illinois; 
                Pivot Bio of Berkeley, California; and Stable'N of Carmi, Illinois.

WHEN     2 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 14

WHERE:  Tulane River and Coastal Center, 1370 Port of New Orleans Place.

MORE:     Tulane opened the challenge in 2014 to participants across the globe to identify and nurture the most innovative and adaptable technologies to fight hypoxia. Phyllis Taylor funded the challenge. Challenge finalists spent the growing season testing their ideas on 25 acres of the Hardwick Planting Company’s 20,000-acre farm in northeast Louisiana along the Mississippi River.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Photos and video b-roll footage from the contest farm site are available at: http://taylor.tulane.edu/awards/nitrogen-reduction-challenge/media/