Faculty
Francisco Arriaga
Professor | farriaga@wisc.edu | 608.263.3913
Applied Soil Physics, Soil and Water Management and Conservation: Conservation agriculture systems; development of conservation tillage practices that enhance soil quality, soil hydraulic properties, and plant water use through the adoption of cover crops and non-inversion tillage for traditional cropping systems. Sustainable Soil Management Laboratory. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar.
Nick Balster
Professor | njbalster@wisc.edu | 608.263.5719
Soil Ecology, Plant Physiological Ecology, and Education: Energy and material cycling in natural and anthropogenic soils including forests, grasslands, and urban ecosystems; stable isotope ecology; environmental education; nutrition management of nursery soils; tree physiology, production and response; ecosystem response to global change; urban ecosystem processes; invasive ecology; biodiversity. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar.
Phil Barak
Professor | phillip.barak@wisc.edu | 608.890.0689
Soil Chemistry and Plant Nutrition: Nutrient cycling; nutrient recovery from wastewater; molecular visualization of soil minerals and molecules; soil acidification. Barak Lab. Google Scholar.
Zac Freedman
Assistant Professor | zfreedman@wisc.edu | 608.262.9018
Soil Microbiology, Ecology and Sustainability: Effects of environmental change on biogeochemical cycles; community ecology and trophic dynamics; forest soil ecology; soil organic matter dynamics; sustainable agroecosystems; bio-based product crop production on marginal lands. Freedman Lab. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar.
Alfred Hartemink
Professor | alfred.hartemink@wisc.edu | 608.263.5691
Pedology, Digital Soil Mapping: Pedology; soil carbon; digital soil mapping; tropical soils; history and philosophy of soil science. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar.
Jingyi Huang
Associate Professor | jhuang426@wisc.edu | 608.262.0221
Soil Physics, Proximal and Remote Sensing, Digital Soil Mapping, Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Interaction: Integrating proximal and remote sensing and process-based models to improve the fundamental understanding of water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles under climate change and human disturbance; combining soil sensing technologies, big data analytics, and machine learning to monitor, model, and map water, carbon, nutrient, and energy fluxes across scales for sustainable natural resources management. Soil Sensing and Monitoring Lab. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar.
Nadia Noor
Instructional Faculty | nnoor2@wisc.edu
Inna Popova
Assistant Professor | ipopova@wisc.edu | 608.265.5008
Soil Chemistry: Environmental soil chemistry; understanding and mitigating the response of soil systems to the increased pressure of organic contaminants; application of biopesticides; development of novel separation and analyses methods for contaminants in environmental matrices. Environmental Soil Chemistry Lab.
Natasha Rayne
Assistant Professor | nrayne@wisc.edu | 608.262.6677
Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management: Manure placement, timing, and nitrogen credits; Organic soil amendments and nutrient cycling; Climate-smart and site-specific nitrogen management; Improvement of nitrogen use efficiency in cereal crop production. Google Scholar
Matt Ruark
Professor | mdruark@wisc.edu | 608.263.2889
Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management: Soil fertility and management of grain, biofuel, and vegetable crops; cover crop management; agricultural production and water quality; sustainability of dairy cropping systems; soil organic matter management. Nutrient Cycling and Agroecosystems Lab. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar.
Gregg Sanford
Assistant Professor | gsanford@wisc.edu | 608.890.0739
Biogeochemistry/Dairy Innovation Hub: Agroecology, Soil Biogeochemistry, Ecosystem Services: Agricultural systems ecology; soil organic carbon – stocks, dynamics, mechanisms; net ecosystem exchange; climate change mitigation, resilience, and adaptation; diversified cropping systems; regenerative farming practices; organic agriculture; crop-livestock integration. Sanford Lab. WI Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WICST). Google Scholar. Dr. Sanford is actively recruiting a PhD student to work on net ecosystem carbon & GHG balances in ecologically intensified Midwestern Cropping Systems (Full listing).
Doug Soldat
Department Chair & Professor | djsoldat@wisc.edu | 608.263.3631
Dr. Soldat’s research, teaching and Extension programs are focused on optimizing resource use efficiency in turfgrass systems and understanding and improving urban soils. Turfgrass Science website. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar.
Thea Whitman
Associate Professor | twhitman@wisc.edu | 608.263.4947
Soil Ecology, Microbiology, and Biogeochemistry: Soil microbial ecology; organic matter decomposition and carbon stabilization; global environmental change; stable isotopes; linking functional significance of microbial communities with ecosystem processes; fire effects on soil carbon and microbes; management and policy. Whitman Lab. Twitter. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar.
Xia Zhu-Barker
Assistant Professor | zhubarker@wisc.edu | 608.263.2795
Soil Biogeochemistry, Land Management, and Environmental Sustainability: Nitrogen and carbon biogeochemical cycles; Greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions; Nitrate leaching and runoff; Innovative manure and nutrient utilization; Composting; Climate change mitigation and adaptation; Ecosystem services and carbon markets; Dairy environmental sustainability; Novel methods in isotopic techniques; Mechanistic exploration of soil-plant-microbe interactions; Process-based modelling. Zhu-Barker Soil Biogeochemistry Laboratory. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar. I am actively looking for graduate students and postdocs who are eager to engage in fundamental and applied research related to soil biogeochemistry, land management and environmental sustainability (Full listing).
Margaret Zimmer
Associate Professor | margaret.zimmer@wisc.edu
Soil Physics: Physical and Chemical Hydrology: Watershed hydrology, hillslope hydrology, runoff generation, critical zone science, water quality, surface water-groundwater interactions, wetlands, nutrient cycling and biogeochemistry, soil physics, and water resources. Watershed Hydrology Lab. Google Scholar. Dr. Zimmer is actively recruiting graduate students at this time (Full listing).
Affiliate Faculty
Matt Ginder-Vogel
Associate Professor | mgindervogel@wisc.edu | 608.262.0768
Civil & Environmental Engineering – Environmental Chemistry and Technology, Geological Engineering, Freshwater and Marine Sciences. Environmental Biogeochemistry Lab. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar.
Erika Marin-Spiotta
Professor | marinspiotta@wisc.edu | 608.262.1855
Geography – Biogeochemistry; Biogeography; Biodiversity; Land Use; Ecosystem function; Climate. Marin-Spiotta BiogeoLab. Scopus Profile. Google Scholar.
Joe Mason
Professor | mason@geography.wisc.edu | 608.262.6316
Geography – Eolian and hillslope geomorphology, loess stratigraphy/sedimentology, soils and paleosols, Quaternary landscape evolution, Quaternary paleoenvironments of the Midwest, the Great Plains and northern China. Mason Lab. Twitter. Scopus Profile . Google Scholar.