European Geosciences Union
Division on Soil System Sciences
President: Claudio Zaccone (sss@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Bas van Wesemael
(bas.vanwesemael@uclouvain.be)
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 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.
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)
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:
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.
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 !!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
The 2021 Philippe Duchaufour Medal is awarded to Donald L. Sparks for his outstanding research in the field of soil chemistry and physical chemistry, which greatly influenced the development of soil science.
The 2021 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Lucia Fuchslueger for her contributions to understanding responses of soil biogeochemical cycling to global change drivers and to unravelling plant and soil microbial interactions and dependence on nutrient availability.
The 2020 Philippe Duchaufour Medal is awarded to Georg Guggenberger for outstanding research in the field of soil science, with special emphasis on conceptual work on the soil organic carbon evolution and interaction of organic matter with mineral structures.
The 2020 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Sebastian Dötterl for his contributions to the understanding of biogeochemical processes along geoclimatic gradients and the role of soil development and soil disturbance as controls on carbon dynamics.
Another month has arrived, and we continue our monthly series of blog posts dedicated to highlighting the indispensable work carried out by our technicians, laboratory assistants, and research support teams. Researchers in Soil Science rely on these key individuals and their tireless efforts to maintain our laboratories, carry out fieldwork, and make research happen! So far in this monthly series, we have visited technicians in Papua New Guinea, Prague, Israel, and Italy. This month, we head to Belgium to enjoy …
Today, as we celebrate International Women’s Day, let’s take a moment to acknowledge our progress in the challenge of reaching gender equity in science, and soil science in particular. Despite the crucial contributions of women, and the fact that an increased gender diversity can contribute to the collective worldwide performance [1], women remain underrepresented and face gender bias in science while we are only starting to learn about the experience of trans and gender diverse individuals. Positive disclaimer: The situation …
This month, we marked International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and to continue the celebrations we are delighted to showcase the work of Lea Piscitelli in our monthly feature, Technician of the Month! Lea Piscitelli works as a research technician in the Laboratory of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry at CIHEAM Bari in Italy. Don’t forget that each month, we’ll spotlight a technician in soil science, and find out a little of their roles and responsibilities behind the scenes. …
On Thursday 4th February, the EGU’s Soil System Sciences (SSS) Division held its first ever Campfire. Launched across the EGU in 2019, EGU Campfires are small, informal events that are set up for members of a division, particularly the Early Career Scientists (ECS), to get to know one another, exchange ideas and views, fuel collaboration, build long lasting friendships, and strengthen professional relationships. Hosted by the SSS division’s ECS team (Layla San Emeterio, Dan Evans, Olga Vindušková, and Danny Itkin), …
This year’s EGU General Assembly features a complete conference experience, from ten keynote sessions and a Jobs and Careers Centre to a Kids Art activity and #ActualLivingScientist initiative. vEGU21 will also include many ways to connect with colleagues and friends, including networking events on Gather.town and a Games Jam.
To help guide you through this new virtual experience, we’ve pulled together the resources you need to get the most out of vEGU21. These include our Top 10 tips for promoting good online engagement – for both conveners and participants – plus tips to balance your experience so you’re ready for all the vPICO sessions the second week. There’s also a blog to let you know how to create an accessible (and effective) presentation.
Last but not least, we’d like you to meet three wonderful people who are helping communicate all this information to you. We hope you have a fun and fulfilling meeting!.