BC: Biodiversity and Climate

Lionel Dupuy is Ikerbasque Research Professor at Neiker, Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development (Spain), specialising in the biophysics of plant-soil interactions. Since obtaining his Ph.D. on the modelling of root-soil mechanics at the University of Bordeaux in 2004, his research has progressively evolved towards the development of live-imaging techniques that integrate novel soil-mimicking materials, live microscopy and advanced image processing and modelling tools. This innovative approach has led to interdisciplinary projects funded by the ERC, UKRI, MICINN and other national and international agencies. 

Richard Phillips  is a full professor in the Department of Biology at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he serves as the Science Director of the Research & Teaching Preserve and Director of the EEB graduate program. His research program focuses on questions at the interface of plant ecophysiology, microbial ecology, biogeochemistry, global change ecology and earth systems science. He employs a complimentary suite of approaches – integrating field measurements from experiments and long-term observational networks – to unify the heterogeneity of plant-microbe-soil interactions in forests. Together, these tools enable him to develop and refine conceptual and mathematical trait-based frameworks that can be used to predict ecosystem sensitivity and resilience to global environmental change.

Andrea Schnepf is a Professor (W2) with a joint appointment between Forschungszentrum Jülich, IBG-3, and the University of Bonn, AEI Faculty, Germany. She obtained her PhD 2002 in Land and Water Management and Engineering at BOKU – University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria, and her habilitation 2013 in Soil Physics. Andrea's expertise is in developing and applying mathematical models in the field of soil-plant interactions, rhizosphere processes, and mycorrhizal associations. Her group has developed and benchmarked functional structural plant models as well as developed workflows to use phenotyping data for root architecture model parameterisation, including image analysis and machine learning 

Frederik van der Bom is an agricultural scientist actively involved in the management of soils and cropping systems. He aims to integrate agronomy, soil science and plant science across laboratory, greenhouse and field studies to provide insights into crop productivity and elemental cycling in soils. This includes 1) the interactions between plant roots and the soil environment in relation to crop nutrient use, yields, and yield stability; 2) the role of plant residues, rhizodeposition and (mineral or organic) inputs in carbon and nutrient dynamics in soil; 3) the development and application of advanced and novel methodologies to investigate plant-soil interactions.

Mutez Ahmed is a Professor of Root-Soil Interactions at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Below-ground hydraulics - the hidden half - has been an enduring interest throughout his career. Together with an interdisciplinary team, he combines advanced imaging techniques (neutron/micro-CT), lab/field experiments and models to investigate the role of below-ground hydraulics (root, soil and their interface) in climate change adaptation and mitigation both in agricultural and natural ecosystems. Current research projects include: (1) effects of root hairs/mucilage/arbuscular mycorrhiza on plant scale water relations; (2) disentangling the impact of edaphic/atmosphere drought on stomata regulation and plant water use; (3) mechanisms underlying the resilience of water transport in angiosperm leaves and roots. 

Lorna Street is an ecosystem scientist based at the University of Edinburgh.  Her work aims to understand how vegetation change influences carbon and nitrogen cycling in ecosystems, with a focus on carbon storage in organic soils. She seeks to answer questions such as will a warmer, greener Arctic store more or less carbon or will tree planting in the Scottish uplands offset our greenhouse gas emissions?  She works on the fundamental science behind these questions.

Simona Radutoiu is Professor of Plant Molecular Biology at Aarhus University. She obtained her PhD in Plant Physiology from Bucharest Romania and has been a group leader at Aarhus University since 2007 and a member of EMBO since 2022. Simona's group studies interactions between plants and soil microbes. They focus on signal exchange and recognition in binary and complex associations. Her goal is to understand how plants discriminate friends from foes to enable root symbioses or to activate immunity, this is essential for developing mechanism-based approaches for sustainable crop production. Simona's group use plant and bacterial genetics to uncover mechanisms contributing to a beneficial plant root microbiota.