Advisory Board and Editors Soil Science
Kabindra Adhikari
Kabindra Adhikari is a soil scientist with expertise in pedometrics, soil-landscape modeling, environmental data science and precision agriculture applications. He holds a PhD in Agroecology with research focusing on pedometrics. His research interests include digital soil mapping, pedology, soil sensing, terrain analysis, soil spectroscopy, soil carbon, soil morphometrics, and ecosystem services. He is developing tools and guidelines to promote precision conservation for croplands by coordinating geospatial data streams for the assessment of sub-field cropland productivity, economics, sustainability and environmental impacts.
Teri Balser
Professor Teri Balser is Dean of Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Curtin University, where she came after having been Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Florida. She received a Ph.D. in soil microbiology came from the University of California at Berkeley, and she completed postdoctoral research in ecosystem ecology at Stanford University. She is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America, and was recently named to the Australian Research Council College of Experts.
Her research centers on understanding microbial community-level ecophysiological responses to stress, disturbance, and change, and the consequences of these for ecosystem functioning. She has worked in countries worldwide studying restoration, carbon sequestration, invasive species, biodiversity, and land use/land cover.
In addition to international recognition as an accomplished research scholar, Dr. Balser is widely known in higher education as a change agent and leader in Science, Technology Engineering and Math education (STEM). She is a co-founder of the Society for Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER), a National Vision and Change Fellow with the Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE), and was a Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair to India in 2015 to help build capacity at the national level for pedagogically advanced and responsive STEM education.
Eoin L Brodie
Eoin Brodie is a Senior Scientist in the Ecology Department of Berkeley Lab’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Area (EESA). Dr. Brodie serves as the Deputy Director of the Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division. At the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Brodie is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. He obtained his Ph.D. from University College Dublin in Ireland and joined LBNL following postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley.
Marco Cavalli
Marco Cavalli obtained the PhD in Environmental Watershed Management in 2009 at the TeSAF (University of Padova) with a thesis on "Hydrological and morphological characterization of mountain basins by means of airborne LiDAR technology”. Since 2009 Marco Cavalli is Researcher at CNR-IRPI of Padova. His research interests include: Geomorphometry, Airborne Laser Scanning technology (LiDAR) and high-resolution DTMs applications, Geomorphic processes in mountain catchments, Post Flash flood investigation, analysis of historical information, GIS and surface hydrology. Currently, his main interest is related to sediment connectivity assessment through geomorphometric approaches.
He is\was scientific responsible or coordinator of CNR IRPI in several National and European projects (SedAlp, GESTO, Gadria Project, KINOFLOW). Since 2011 he is teaching a course for PhD and post doc researchers entitled 'Geomorphometry: quantitative analysis of earth surface' at the University of Padova. He is\was supervisor of three research grants at CNR IRPI, co-advisor of two PhD and several B.S. and M.S. theses of the University of Padova, Udine, Wageningen, Stockholm on geomorphology and hydrology fields. He is author and co-author of more than 50 papers in international journals.
Chih-Hsin Cheng
Dr. Chih-Hsin Cheng is a soil biogeochemist who focuses on soil physicochemical properties and carbon and nutrient cycles in agro- and forest ecosystems. His research includes (1) natural and anthropogenic influences on carbon stocks and carbon cycle; (2) characterization of biochar and soil organic matter and their roles in stabilization of organic carbon; and (3) assessment of carbon sequestration in afforestation/reforestation.
Jorge Curiel Yuste
Dr. Jorge Curiel Yuste, leads the group of "Terrestrial Ecology" within the BC3. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Antwerp (UA, Belgium) in 2004. Since then, he has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Biometeorology (Biometlab) lab at the University of California, Berkeley (Prof. Dennis D Baldocchi, 2004-2007) a Marie Curie fellow (Intra-European Fellowship (IEF)) in the Global Ecology Unit at the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) of Barcelona (2007-2009), a postdoctoral researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB; Contractes doctoral D'Intensificatió I3, 2009-2011) and a "Ramón y Cajal" research fellow at the Museum of Natural History (MNCN, CSIC). Since 2017 he holds an Ikerbasque Research Professorship at the Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3). At the moment he is also responsible for the group of "Plant and soil Interactions" (PlanSoil within the Asociaciión Española de Ecología Terrestre (AEET)
Saurav Das
Dr. Saurav Das is a soil scientist with expertise in soil health, soil carbon, microbial ecology, and sustainable agriculture. He serves as the Research Director of the Farming Systems Trial at Rodale Institute, where his work focuses on understanding the intersection of soil management, plant health, and ecosystem services in organic and regenerative farming systems. Dr. Das has published extensively on topics such as biogeochemistry of carbon and nitrogen, soil health, soil carbon, microbial community dynamics, and the integration of data-driven approaches in agricultural research. He is committed to advancing sustainable practices that balance productivity and environmental health.
Janendra De Costa
Janendra De Costa is the Senior Professor and Chair of Crop Science at the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. In his research, Prof. De Costa explores the interactions between plants and their environment. In particular, he is interested in unravelling the influence of climate on the functioning (i.e. physiology) of plants, their growth and productivity. His research has spanned across a range of agricultural crops in agro-ecosystems and natural plant species in forest ecosystems, with a special focus on climate change and its impacts on agricultural crops and tropical rainforests, their climate and soils. Prof. De Costa’s research has been predominantly empirical, strongly based on quantitative observations in the field and data analysis to build relationships, with a limited amount of simulation modelling and molecular biology.
As part of his interactions with the wider scientific community at the national level, Prof. De Costa takes an interest in policy formulation and funding for scientific research and development. He has served in national level research funding agencies, policy formulating bodies, editorial boards, governing boards and research monitoring and evaluation committees of national agencies. Currently, he functions as the Chairperson of the Consultative Committee for Research of the Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka and is a member of the governing board of the Sugarcane Research Institute of Sri Lanka. As part of his social responsibility as a scientist, Prof. De Costa writes regularly to national newspapers on topical issues with a view to increasing scientific literacy and awareness among the general public.
Mohamed A. El-Esawi
Dr. Mohamed A. El-Esawi is Professor at Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Egypt. Dr. El-Esawi received his BSc and MSc from Tanta University, and his Ph.D. degree from Dublin Institute of Technology, Technological University Dublin, Ireland. After obtaining his Ph.D., Dr. El-Esawi joined the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, University of Sorbonne in France, University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium and University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom as a visiting research fellow. His research focuses on genetics, molecular biology, environmental health and safety, environmental stress, biotechnology, molecular physiology, developmental biology, and bioinformatics. He has authored more than 150 international peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, books, and patents, and has participated in more than 70 conferences and workshops worldwide. Dr. El-Esawi has received several grants and international awards and recognition, including the Plants 2021 Young Investigator Award (MDPI, Switzerland). He has been ranked among the world's top 2% Scientists by Stanford University in USA, and is currently involved in several research projects.
Ana E Escalante
Dr. Ana E. Escalante, a PhD in microbial ecology and evolution, has extensively studied microbial diversity and evolution in natural and engineered ecosystems. Since 2011, she has been at the National Laboratory of Sustainability Sciences (LANCIS), focusing on sustainability, particularly its implications for public policy and ecosystem management. With >50 scientific articles, numerous supervised theses, and teaching roles in multiple graduate programs. Since 2020 she serves as director of the Institute of Ecology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
Maria Luisa Fernandez-Marcos
Maria Luisa Fernandez-Marcos graduated in Chemical Sciences from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in 1976. She obtained her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1985, specializing in Soil Science. Between 1979 and 1987 she was a secondary school teacher.
Since 1987 she is a professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, in the area of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, where she has taught Soil Science, Environmental Pollution and related subjects. Her main research lines are: soil chemistry, soil fertility and management, biogeochemical cycles, soil and water pollution, environmental soil science, waste management and recycling, tropical soils, climate change mitigation and adaptation.
She is a member of the Spanish Society of Soil Science, Soil Science Society of America, International Union of Soil Sciences and Ibero-American Society of Environmental Physics and Chemistry.
Scott Ferrenberg
I am a terrestrial population, community, and ecosystem ecologist interested in understanding how global change pressures influence biotic populations and community states, and how potential shifts in trait and/or species distributions will affect ecological functioning in arid, semiarid, and subalpine ecosystems. I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at New Mexico State University where I am the PI of the Global Change Ecology Lab (GCEL).