The Prize Committee for Agriculture has unanimously decided that the Prize for 1995/6 be jointly awarded to:
Morris Schnitzer
Centre for land and Biological
Resources Research, Agriculture Canada
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Frank J. Stevenson
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, Illinois, USA
for their pioneering contributions to our understanding of the chemistry of soil organic matter and its application to agriculture.
Dr. Morris Schnitzer and Professor Frank J. Stevenson are the pioneers of our understanding of the chemistry of soil organic matter. They have applied their discoveries to the improvement of agricultural practice. Their research has elucidated the composition and physicochemical properties of humic acids. Their utilization of modern analytic techniques has significantly improved our understanding of the structure of humic acids in soils. Their research has had a major impact on our knowledge of the behavior of nutrients and hazardous chemicals in soils.
Their lifetime of research in this field has greatly improved management of soil resources and maintenance of environmental quality.