2022 Winner: Recognition Of Regional Innovation - St. Albert
Winner: Kathy Janzen & Ken Schmidt (Wilson Analytical)
Initiative: Building Rugged Field and Laboratory Instrumentation for Cleantech Measurements.
Wilson Analytical – Building rugged field and laboratory instrumentation for clean tech measurements. Unique offerings include the flexible Open Platform System (OPS), for fluorescence, absorbance, transmission or reflectance measurements on solids, liquids, gases, or slurries -requiring only quick adjustments of the “Lego-style” spectroscopy system. A new system under development will automate rugged excitation-emission fluorescence spectroscopy (EEM) for wastewater cleanup in agricultural, pulp and paper, or oil and gas wastewater streams before and after water treatment. Wilson’s OPS is a centerpiece for two NSERC funded research projects: a multi-university project on microplastics in Canada’s Great Lakes and a project working on development of a hydrogen sensor. Wilson’s light sources and detection systems are now being developed to measure greenhouse gases such as CO, CO2, CH4, H2S, NOx, and SF6. Joint project partners include: ACAMP, University of Calgary, University of Alberta, University of Toronto, University of Windsor, Concordia University of Edmonton, Thompson Rivers University, Lakehead University, Oklahoma State University, and the Northern Alberta Business Incubator.
Kathy Janzen BSc, PChem,Vice-President and Founder. Kathy Janzen is a Professional Chemist with 25 years of experience with the RCMP as a forensic scientist, followed by 2 years as one of the principles of the analytical services side of Wilson Analytical. Also involved in several high tech start-ups, she worked with entrepreneurs at the Northern Alberta Business Incubator (NABI).
Ken Schmidt, PhD, PChem, President and Founder. Ken Schmidt completed his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Calgary – and over the last 25 years, he has worked with universities and the mining and energy industries to solve industry specific problems in sulfur chemistry, catalysis, ceramics, chemical vapour deposition (CVD) coatings and spectroscopy.
