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SSS Soil System Sciences Division on Soil System Sciences

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European Geosciences Union

Division on Soil System Sciences
sss.egu.eu

Division on Soil System Sciences

President: Heike Knicker (sss@egu.eu)
Deputy President: vacant

Soil is the interface between the crust and atmosphere, and is the basis of life on Earth.  The impact of soil science to the society has probably never been as high as it is currently. The importance of soils in the Earth system must make us, the soil scientists, more noticeable at the EGU. The aim of the Division on Soil System Sciences (SSS) is to coordinate the EGU scientific programme on soil science and related activities. The SSS contributes actively with EGU by promoting scientific interchange and dissemination of activity carried out by members.

Call for SSS division Officers & Committee Members

The composition of our division (https://www.egu.eu/sss/structure/) will be partially renewed/updated. In particular, we are looking for volunteers for the following positions:

  • Early Carrier Scientist (ECS) co-representative
  • Science Officers (x2)
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) coordinator
  • Committee member of “SSS5: Soil Chemistry and Organic Matter Dynamics”
  • Committee member of “SSS11: Material and Methods in Soil Science”
  • Committee member of “SSS12: Soil policy and legislation”

Are you are interested to serve and help growing the Soil System Sciences division?

If YES, please send a brief CV (1 pp.) and a motivation letter (1 pp.) to:

  • daniel.l.evans@cranfield.ac.uk, osumgborogwu.ikenna@gmail.com, and sigrid.van-grinsven@tum.de, if you wish to serve as an ECS co-representative;
  • knicker@irnase.csic.es, stephen.bell@uab.cat, and guninaann@gmail.com, if you wish to serve as a Science Officer;
  • knicker@irnase.csic.es, daniel.l.evans@cranfield.ac.uk, and ksidra59@ymail.com, if you wish to serve as an OSPP coordinator;
  • the corresponding Committee Chairs and Members (listed at https://www.egu.eu/sss/structure/), if you wish to serve as a Subdivision Committee Member.

Deadline: March 20, 2023.

All new Officers/Committee members will be officially nominated and approved during the next SSS division meeting on April 25, 2023.

2023 SSS awards and medals

On 30th November 2022, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) has named the 47 recipients of next year’s Union Medals and Awards, Division Medals, and Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Awards (https://www.egu.eu/news/937/egu-announces-its-2023-awards-and-medals/). We wish to congratulate Andreas A. Richter (Philippe Duchaufour Medal 2023), Ravendra Naidu (Alina Kabata-Pendias Medal 2023) and Gina Garland (SSS OECS 2023), and thank all scientists nominated but not awarded. As usual, our Division received several great nominations (the work of the Medal and Award Committees was not easy at all!), and this mirrors the high scientific profile of our members.

Call for SSS sessions for EGU General Assembly 2023


The EGU General Assembly 2023 will be held on site at the Austria Center Vienna, with online components provided to enable virtual attendance, from 23 to 28 April 2023.

The call-for-sessions for the next EGU is open, and that the deadline for session proposals is September 19th, 2022.

All members of the SSS community can suggest sessions with conveners and a description HERE. You have the possibility of proposing either physical oral/poster sessions with a hybrid component or hybrid vPICO sessions.

When suggesting a session, Short Course, or Townhall Meeting, please consider promoting under-represented demographics, including: (i) multiple countries and institutes, (ii) different career stages, (iii) different genders and all other forms of diversity, and (iv) diverse scientific approaches (see convener guidelines and rules here).

Call for nominations for SSS awards and medals - 2023


To all members of the SSS community,

The call-for-nominations for the SSS Outstanding Early Career Scientist (OECS) award and the Philippe Duchaufour / Alina Kabata-Pendias medals is currently open. Check it out here.

Deadline for submissions is 15 June 2022.

Call for SSS division Officers & Committee Members

The composition of our SSS division (https://www.egu.eu/sss/structure/) will be partially renewed/updated. In particular, we are looking for volunteers for the following positions:

  • Early Carrier Scientist (ECS) representative
  • Webmaster and Secretary for News and Outreach
  • Committee member of “SSS1: History, Education and Society of Soil Science”
  • Committee member of “SSS2: Soil Erosion and Conservation”
  • Committee member of “SSS3: Soils as Records in Time and Space”
  • Committee member of “SSS4: Soil Biology, Microbiology and Biodiversity”
  • Committee member of “SSS5: Soil Chemistry and Organic Matter Dynamics”
  • Committee member of “SSS6: Soil Physics”
  • Committee member of “SSS7: Soil Pollution and Reclamation”
  • Committee member of “SSS8: Soil, Environment and Ecosystem Interactions”
  • Committee member of “SSS9: Soils, Forestry and Agriculture”
  • Committee member of “SSS10: Metrics, Informatics and Statistics in Soils”
  • Committee member of “SSS12: Soil policy and legislation”

Are you are interested to serve and help growing the Soil System Sciences division?

If YES, please send a brief CV (1 pp.) and a motivation letter to:

  1. laylase92@gmail.com (ECS representative), daniel.l.evans@cranfield.ac.uk (ECS co-representative) and ikenna.osumgborogwu@manchester.ac.uk (ECS co-representative), if you wish to serve as an ECS representative;
  2. daniel.l.evans@cranfield.ac.uk (ECS co-representative), stephen.bell@uab.cat and guninaann@gmail.com (Science Officers), if you wish to serve as a Webmaster/Secretary for News and Outreach;
  3. the corresponding Committee Chairs and Members (https://www.egu.eu/sss/structure/), if you wish to serve as a Subdivision Committee Member.

Deadline: April 11, 2022.

All new Officers/Committee members will be officially nominated and approved during the next SSS division meeting (in May 2022).

Join the EGU’s new Biodiversity Task Force!

In October 2021, Biodiversity was selected by the EGU Science for Policy Working Group and approved by the EGU Council as the 2022-2024 Policy Priority Area due to its relevance to many EGU divisions, current and future policy relevance, and the need for information and continued scientific support in the creation of new European legislation and establishment of new European and national initiatives.

On 17 November 2021, EGU launched a call for experts to join the EGU’s Biodiversity Task Force that will support these activities and allow EGU to contribute to the EU’s upcoming biodiversity policies and activities!

To apply, please submit your CV (max 2 pages) that outlines your relevant experience in the area of biodiversity and a cover letter here by 17 December 2021. For more info, click here.

 

2022 SSS Division Award Recipients

On November 3rd 2021, the EGU named the 50 recipients of next year's Union Medals and Awards, Division Medals, and Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist (OECS) Awards (https://www.egu.eu/news/872/egu-announces-its-2022-awards-and-medals/).

We wish to congratulate Mary K. Firestone (Philippe Duchaufour Medal 2022) and Diana C.S. Vieira (SSS OECS 2022), and thank all scientists nominated but not awarded. Our Division received several great nominations (the work of the Medal and Award Committees was not easy at all!), and this mirrors the high scientific profile of our members.

 

A new medal for SSS!

On October 21st, 2021, the EGU Council approved a second medal for our SSS division. This medal, proposed by the previous President Saskia Keesstra in 2018 and voted during the SSS division meeting in April 2021 (https://www.egu.eu/sss/reports/), will be available for nomination in 2022 and will be named after A. Kabata-Pendias.

 

EGU Election Autumn 2021

The EGU Election Autumn 2021 for the next EGU Union President, General Secretary and Division (including SSS) Presidents is currently open for all 2021 EGU members until November 30, 2021 (https://www.egu.eu/elections/).

The candidate for the SSS division is Heike Knicker (https://www.egu.eu/elections/egu-election-autumn-2021/candidates/).

 

Call for Abstracts for EGU General Assembly 2022

The Call for Abstracts to the EGU General Assembly 2022 is now open (https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU22/sessionprogramme)!

Please, submit the results of your research in one of the sessions promoted by the SSS division.

 

Call for nominations for the 2022 Division Awards

The deadline to nominate the best deserving soil researchers for the Philippe Duchaufour Medal and the Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award for 2022 is June 15 2021.

Detailed information on the selection process and how to propose a candidate is available on the Awards & Medals section of the EGU website. Nominations for all the medals and awards must be submitted via an online nomination form. Before submitting a nomination, please carefully check if the nomination and supporting documents satisfy the EGU requirements.

 

2nd EGU SSS Campfire event: Gender Equity

We are more than happy to announce the 2nd edition of the Soil System Sciences Division’s Campfire event. The idea of our campfire events is to bring together early career and other scientists in these challenging times when other ways of meeting each other is difficult. This time following up on our recent blog post, we will discuss gender equity in (soil) science. After a general introduction by our guest speaker, attendees will be randomly divided into room chats where they will meet and introduce one another; discuss their opinions on a selected question related to gender bias, mentorship and/or academic career; and discuss what can early career scientists as individuals as well as our Division do to further promote gender equity.

When? Thursday 25 March 2021, 19:00 CET

Register for the event: here

Contacts: Olga Vindušková (olga.vinduskova@gmail.com), Layla M. San Emeterio (laylase92@gmail.com), Dan Evans (Daniel.L.Evans@cranfield.ac.<wbr></wbr>uk)

 

Call for Science Officers, Subdivision Committee members and the OSPP coordinator

Our Division is looking for enthusiastic soil science community members to join our team in 2021. In particular, we are looking for:

If you are interested to serve and help growing the Soil System Sciences division, please send a brief CV (1 pp.) and a motivation letter to:

  1. sss@egu.eu (SSS President), bas.vanwesemael@uclouvain.be (SSS Deputy President), and laylase92@gmail.com (ECS representative), if you wish to serve as a Science officer;
  2. laylase92@gmail.com (ECS representative), daniel.l.evans@cranfield.ac.uk (ECS co-representative) and olga.vinduskova@gmail.com (Secretary for News and Outreach), if you wish to serve as an OSPP coordinator;
  3. the corresponding Committee Chairs and members (https://www.egu.eu/sss/<wbr></wbr>structure/), if you wish to serve as a member of Subdivision SSS4 or SSS12.

Deadline: March 31st, 2021.

Please take into account that all new Officers/Committee members need to be nominated and approved during the next SSS business meeting (on April, 21st), i.e., they need to be present during the SSS meeting.

 

SOIL journal: 3rd in the Soil Science category of CiteScore 2019

CiteScore 2019 values are now available in Scopus. SOIL, our EGU Soil System Sciences (SSS) division open-access journal ranked 3/126 (98th percentile) in the category Soil Science !!!

 

Call for nominations for the 2021 Division Awards

The deadline to nominate the best deserving soil researchers for the Philippe Duchaufour Medal and the Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award for 2021 has been extended to 30 June 2020.

Detailed information on the selection process and how to propose a candidate is available on the Awards & Medals section of the EGU website. Nominations for all the medals and awards must be submitted via an online nomination form. Before submitting a nomination, please carefully check if the nomination and supporting documents satisfy the EGU requirements.

 

Call for Subdivision Committee members 2020

As every two years, our Division was looking for enthusiastic soil science community members to join our team as Subdivision Committee members. This year, several Subdivision chairs and committee members are ending their mandate, and new candidates will be proposed and approved during the SSS Division Meeting on May 5th, 2020.

Deadline: March 31st, 2020.

Open letter regarding presentations at EGU meetings

The EGU has issued an open letter to funding agencies and evaluation committees with information on the assessment of presentations given at its scientific meetings.

The letter details the three presentation types given at EGU General Assembly and states that the selection of the type of presentation is not based on any evaluation of the scientific value of the contribution. This letter emphasises that there is no distinction regarding the standing, quality or prestige of oral, poster, or PICO presentations.

Obituary: Lily Pereg (1964–2019)

Lily Pereg, Deputy President and Programme Group Chair of the EGU Soil System Sciences (SSS) Division and Executive Editor of the SOIL journal, died tragically and unexpectedly earlier this month during a trip to Argentina.

Pereg was a microbiologist with 25 years of research experience and an associate professor at the School of Science and Technology, University of New England in Armidale, Australia. An EGU member since 2013, Pereg was elected to serve as president of the EGU SSS Division in Autumn 2017, a role she was due to take on in April this year.

Soils at Imaggeo: shoot your soil!

Amazing soil pictures? Are you a photoartist? Share your work at Imaggeo, the open-access image repository of EGU.


Lorena M. Zavala (Univ. of Sevilla) holds a soil
aggregate composed of organic matter from a
peatland from the Wicklow Mountains (Ireland)

Recent awardees

Jan Willem van Groenigen

Jan Willem van Groenigen

  • 2024
  • Philippe Duchaufour Medal

The 2024 Philippe Duchaufour Medal is awarded to Jan Willem van Groenigen for his outstanding work on the integration of agricultural management and environmental science as they relate to global change.


Daniel L. Evans

Daniel L. Evans

  • 2024
  • Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists

The 2024 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Daniel L. Evans for outstanding research in the field of exploration of urban soil ecosystem services.


Andreas A. Richter

Andreas A. Richter

  • 2023
  • Philippe Duchaufour Medal

The 2023 Philippe Duchaufour Medal is awarded to Andreas A. Richter for his pioneering scientific contributions in soil ecological research, and his work as an excellent teacher and mentor for his students, following an inclusive approach.


Ravendra Naidu

Ravendra Naidu

  • 2023
  • Alina Kabata-Pendias Medal

The 2023 Alina Kabata-Pendias Medal is awarded to Ravendra Naidu for outstanding research on developing better ways to assess, characterise risks of, and remediate contaminated soil, and the potential impacts of contaminants on environmental and human health.


Gina Garland

Gina Garland

  • 2023
  • Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award

The 2023 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Gina Garland for outstanding research exploring how different agricultural practices impact soil functioning and environmental sustainability.


Christhel Andrade Diaz

Christhel Andrade Diaz

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Christhel Andrade Diaz Strengthening the bioeconomy in tropical countries while preserving soil organic carbon stocks by recycling recalcitrant coproducts: A case study for Ecuador


Jana-Sophie Appelt

Jana-Sophie Appelt

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Jana-Sophie Appelt Estuarine filter for trace metals and emerging contaminants: An example from Southampton Water, UK


Oleksandr Bonchkovskyi

Oleksandr Bonchkovskyi

  • 2023
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Oleksandr Bonchkovskyi A detailed palaeosol record of Middle and Upper Pleistocene from the central part of the Volyn’ Upland (the NW Ukraine)

Current issue of the EGU newsletter

How do you get more people to care for the geosciences – a field that affects and influences all of life itself? Scientists across the EGU network share their stories!

Friedrich Barnikel outlines how, since 2003, EGU brings together scientists and teachers for capacity-building workshops, while Evi Nomikou takes us through EGU’s third Geoscience Day, highlighting volcanic geohazards to over 260 school students.

We also hear from Grace Skirrow who breaks down a seemingly complex subject like fluvial geomorphology and the role that it can play in policy decisions. Meanwhile, geologist Sinelethu Hashibi explains why she’s driven to translate geoscience for isiXhosa-speaking communities. And for those of you fond of card games, don’t miss the launch of QUARTETnary: a game about the geological time scale, developed by Iris van Zelst and Lucia Perez-Diaz and partly funded by the EGU Public Engagement Grant 2021.

Finally, don’t forget to visit our EGU24 page to stay up-to-date with information on the upcoming General Assembly this April. You can also subscribe to receive monthly updates in your inbox at the beginning of each month.