Phillip Barak


Phillip Barak
PhD, Soil Science, 1988
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Professor
Department of Soil Science
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1525 Observatory Dr., Madison, WI 53706-1299

Director of Information Technology and Computing (Mar 2012 - Apr 2017)
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
216G Agricultural Hall
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Interim Information Technology Director (Mar 2010 - Feb 2012)
      College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
Interim Assistant Dean (Oct 2006 - May 2007)
      Undergraduate Programs & Services
      College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
      University of Wisconsin-Madison

Chair, Information Technology Committee (Sep 2006 - Jun 2010)
      University of Wisconsin-Madison

Professional Soil Scientist, licensed, State of Wisconsin

Tel: 608 890-0689
Fax: 608 265-2595
e-mail: phillip.barak@wisc.edu

Barak, 2015

Of current interest:
My current research activities relate to nutrient recovery from wastewater, including phosphorus removal from wastewater treatment plants in the form of brushite, a largely neglected phosphorus fertilizer. Coverage of this activity is to be found at: 'UW helps communities create cleaner, greener wastewater', Second Life for Phosphorus', 'Second Life for Phosphorus - Interview', 'Business will implement new phosphorus recycling process in Midwest' and 'New Solution Reduces Phosphorus Pollution and Helps Farmers'.
My most recent push is for nitrogen and potassium recovery from anaerobic digests of various kinds by electrodialysis. Because these projects have an applied and commercial aspect to them, I have worked closely with WARF, the intellectual property holder of the Univ of Wisconsin-Madison, and the campus Conflict of Interest Cmte; Nutrient Recovery & Upcycling (NRU), LLC, has been set up to patent and commercialize intellectual property from the Barak Lab.

Also of interest:


Other webpages of interest:

The Virtual Museum of Minerals and Molecules: Jmol models of minerals and molecules of interest to soil science and related fields.

Essential Elements for Plant Growth


Research interests:

My background is in soil chemistry of plant nutrients, plant nutrition, and scientific visualization. My current interest is largely nutrient recovery from wastewater, particularly P, N and K, and this is the thrust of my current research projects. Previous projects include:


Publications:

Older publications.

Barak's Virtual Poster Gallery


Courses Taught:


Graduate Students:

  • Leslie Sherman (PhD): Completed degree, 17 Apr 1997
  • Kang Xia (PhD; Dr. Philip Helmke, coadvisor): Completed degree, Nov 1996
  • Babou Jobe (MSc): Completed degree, 18 Jan 1996
  • Gulden Zont (MSc): Completed degree, Aug 1997
  • Mauricio Avila (PhD) Completed MSc degree, May 1999
  • DD Levine (MSc) Completed MSc degree, June 2000
  • Jim Lyne (MSc) Completed MSc degree, Aug 2002
  • Mauricio Avila (PhD) Completed PhD degree, May 2004
  • Juli Meyer (MSc) Completed MSc degree, Aug 2004
  • Merin Abraham (MSc)Completed MSc degree, Civil Environ Engineering, Aug 2008
  • Amanda Boyce (MSc) Completed MSc degree, Aug 2010
  • JoonHe Lee (MSc; Dr. Mark Powell, coadvisor) Completed MSc degree, Apr 2012
  • Tyler Anderson (MSc)Completed MSc degree, Aug 2015
  • Amanda Jensen (MSc) Completed MSc degree, Jul 2018
  • Dustin Sawyer (MSc) Completed MSc degree, Jan 2019
  • Donnie Vineyard (MSc) Completed MSc degree, Civil Environ Engineering, Jul 2019
  • Laura Bybee (MSc) Completed MSc degree, Aug 2019
  • Jacob Kruse (MSc) Completed MSc degree, Jun 2020
  • Donnie Vineyard (PhD) ...Civil Environ Engineering, in progress
kavod talmid

Link to Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Last modified 25 May 2021 by Phillip Barak.