This summer started with the World Soil Judging Competition in Nanjing, China, where I had a great time competing alongside our Early Career (EC) members Theodore Heaton-Davies, Thomas Smith and Cairo Robb, coached by Jay Ryan. It was a truly unforgettable experience, and an excellent opportunity to learn from some of the world’s top pedologists and meet EC soil scientists from around the world. Immediately following this was the World Congress of Soil Science, where it was fantastic to connect with so many BSSS EC members – it made a fun challenge to attend as many EC presentations as possible in such a packed schedule!
Over the summer period it’s been brilliant to see our EC members involved in a number of BSSS outreach activities, including Groundswell and the Sandringham Flower Show. Please do keep sharing your pictures and experiences with us, we love to hear what you’re up to!
We’ve recently hosted two Unearth Your Potential webinars. Our first was in collaboration with Wiley, focussing on how to peer review. We had excellent attendance and engagement, and great discussion with our BSSS Journal Editors Professor Roland Bol and Professor Leo Condron. Our second webinar was on Stakeholder Engagement and Soil Literacy, presented by Dr Emma McKenna, Dr Calum McGeown, Dr Karolina Trdlicova and Dr Claire McDonnell. They drew on their experiences from the LOESS and ECHO soil projects to provide excellent interactive training on how community-identified soil challenges can be developed into research questions and collaborative research projects. Both webinars are now available to watch on our YouTube channel. We have plans for another Unearth Your Potential webinar later in the year so keep an eye on emails for updates. Additionally, next week I’m looking forward to BSSS joining with the British Ecological Society for a seminar on root mycorrhiza interactions, where we’ll hear from our EC member Rosemary Gooda about her PhD research.
Looking to the future, we’re now preparing for the BSSS Annual Conference in Aberdeen in December. Abstract submissions are open and it would be brilliant to see EC members there. We have an EC member workshop planned for the afternoon of Tuesday 1 December, prior to the main conference, with hands-on experience with different soils and a chance to learn about different classification systems, as well as the opportunity to network and connect with other EC members.
The British Society of Soil Science (BSSS) conference 2026
Finally, we’ve had a few changes to the EC Committee recently. We extend a huge thank you to Jay Ryan and Christina Van Midden who stepped down after three years on the committee and we welcome Lauren Tribbeck, Takara Simpson-Jenkins, Jacques Holford, Theodore Heaton-Davies, Megan Hudson and Emily Donaghy. We are looking forward to our next committee meeting in September to continue our future planning.
Jess Brook, EC Chair
