BOKU chemist awarded

The Austrian Society of Analytical Chemistry (ASAC), a non-profit association for the promotion of analytical chemistry in research, education and application, organizes the ASAC Young Analyst Forum (JAF) every year, where young scientists have the opportunity to present and discuss their latest research results. Alexandra Bennett from the Institute of Analytical Chemistry at BOKU Vienna received the award for the best presentation at this year's forum.

Abstracts:
MSc Bennett's presentation focused on the application of a novel analytical strategy for the relative quantification and qualification of root exudates released from the roots of plants used as cover crops. The FWF project is being carried out at the Institute of Analytical Chemistry in cooperation with the Institute of Soil Research and Agroscope (Changins, Switzerland). Cover crops are of interest because they reduce the growth and reproduction of volunteer weeds, and their exudates are of interest because of their role in volunteer weed control. MSc Bennett's research examined these molecules in experiments where cover crops had been grown alone, with a neighbor of the same species, or with a weed. It analyzed which small molecules were produced in the presence of co-weed and could be responsible for the weed-inhibiting properties of these cover crops. This knowledge can be used in the future to make the use of cover crops for weed control more effective. 
A more detailed and technical version of MSc Bennett's work can be found here:
https://boku.ac.at/docservice/doktoratsstudien/doktoratsschulen/agrigenomics/research/projects/assessment-of-below-ground-chemical-communication-by-allelopathic-cover-crops-in-response-to-heterospecific-neighbors 

Project description: forschung.boku.ac.at/fis/suchen.projekt_uebersicht
Institute of Analytical Chemistry: https://boku.ac.at/chemie/institut-fuer-analytische-chemie-dchac