Local organising committee

Liz is a soil biogeochemist working on plant soil interactions at the University of Edinburgh where she is Chair of Food and Environmental Security as well as Dean of Research for the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. Liz obtained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh and since has held a lectureship at Imperial College, Chair of Soil Science at the University of Aberdeen as well as being Head fo the School of Biological Sciences. Liz is a past President of the British Society of Soil Science, and has various current and previous strategic leadership and advisory roles for higher education and research, governments, and international research organisations and funders.

Tim is the Deputy Director of the International Barley hub having been a PI at the James Hutton Institute for 18 years. A rhizosphere scientist working to understand the physiology and genetic controls of plant rhizosphere responses to nutrient and water stress. In particular he is interested in how plants interact with the soil chemical, biological and physical environment to impact resource capture with the aim of identifying useful traits and cultivars for future agriculture. He was recently elected as President of the International Society of Root Research.

Paul is a Soil Physicist at the University of Aberdeen. His research explores solutions to food and environmental security, focussed on the interactions between plants, microorganisms and the physical behaviour of soil. He has authored over 180 refereed papers and is President-Elect of the British Society of Soil Science.

David has been Dean of the Central Faculty and Prof of Soils and Environmental Science at SRUC since 2018. Previously he was Director of Science at the Scottish Crop Research Institute, Head of School at Heriot-Watt University and Dean of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the Royal Agricultural University. David’s background is, soil science and while some of his work has an obvious agricultural focus, he has a special interest in deserts.

After gaining a PhD in Crop sciences at the University of Milan, Davide fell ‘in love at first sight’ with plant microbiota at the Max Planck Institute, Cologne. In 2013, Davide established a research group at the University of Dundee with the overarching ambition of contributing to sustainable development by dissecting the genetic basis of plant-microbiota interactions and expediting translational applications.

Maddy is a senior research scientist in the Plant-Soil Interactions (PSI) research group at the  James Hutton Institute. Her research focuses on the microbial ecology of the C and N cycles and her interests lie in relating how changes in soil functional communities can affect nutrient cycling and the production of greenhouse gases in agricultural systems.

Dr Ben Jackson is technical specialist in use of stable isotope techniques in plant and soil ecology in the Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems at the University of Edinburgh. He currently manages the Plant Soil Systems laboratories and IRMS facility.

Fiona is a lecturer in crop and soil systems at SRUC. Her work focuses microbial resilience and how responses to different stressors impact soil C and N cycling.