Divine is the founder and executive director of the Global Climate Smart Agricultural Youth Network. Divine has many years of experience in youth entrepreneurship, advocacy and mobilization of young people interested in agriculture. In May 2014, he established the network which is now operational in thirty countries across Africa, Asia and the USA.

Jemima is a disability rights advocate and leader who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in diversity and inclusion. Born and raised in an indigenous and marginalized Maasai community in Kenya, she broke historic barriers as the first woman with a disability to challenge female genital mutilation, child marriage, and the exclusion of girls from education within her community. Passionate about creating awareness and building the capacity of women, young people, and people with disabilities, Jemimah champions economic empowerment as a pathway to breaking poverty barriers and nurturing hidden talents.  

Awde currently works at the department of Biosystems Engineering, Hawassa University. Awde does research in soil conservation and watershed management. Current projects are local-level land degradation assessment towards sustainable land management for improved livelihood in the Ethiopian Rift Valley (SMILE) and Cataloguing and Rating of Opportunities for Sidelined Species in Restoration of Agriculturally Degraded Soils in Sub-Saharan Africa (CROSSROADS).  

Frederic Coulon is Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Microbiology at Cranfield University. Fred’s interests include soil and water chemistry; transport of chemicals in surface and subsurface waters; water and wastewater treatment; soil and sediment treatment; hazardous waste site remediation; energy and environment; population and environment; and public communication of environmental science and engineering.

Tony Gutierrez is Professor of Environmental Microbiology & Biotechnology at Heriot-Watt University, Scotland. Tony’s research aims to understand the role that microbes play in the environmental pollutants, like plastics, crude oil and other petrochemicals, and to harness their power to help clean up contaminated land and water. His specialism focuses on the bacteria which, like viruses and microscopic algae, are too small to be seen by the naked eye. His passion is to make a better world through better understanding, and harnessing the power, of microbes.

Professor Jack Hannam is Immediate Past-President of the British Society of Soil Science, following her presidency from 2023 – 2024. She is a soil scientist specialising in soil data, digital soil mapping and soil health. Her research focuses on digital soil mapping, applications of conservation agriculture to improve soil health, developing decision support tools for planning soil and landscape decisions and the application of application of national and local scale soil data for policy and business applications.

She leads the LandIS team at Cranfield University, who are responsible for the national soil data for England and Wales.  Jack is also vice chair of the International Union of Soil Science (IUSS) Division 1: Soil in Space and Time. She is an Associate Editor for the journals Soil Use and Management and SOIL. She is a passionate science communicator and has been interviewed on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Sky News and BBC World. She founded Soapbox Science in Milton Keynes in 2015, a public outreach platform promoting women in science.

This episode is sponsored by the Environmental Biotechnology Network, or EBNet, a network in industrial biotechnology and bioenergy comprising a community of academics and industry dedicated to engineering microbio systems for environmental protection, bioremediation and resource recovery.

EBNet is one of six networks in industrial biotechnology and bioenergy supported by UK research and innovation.

You can find out more information about the EBNet themes covered here

Professor Anna Krzywoszynska is an environmental social scientist and Associate Professor in Transdisciplinary Human-Environment Relations at the University of Oulu, Finland.

Dr Krzywoszynska’s overarching research interest is in investigating and transforming knowledge-cultures in different settings in order to strengthen sustainable and just relationships between humans and their environments. Her research projects have investigated the politics and ethics of agri-environmental knowledge, especially in relation to soils and soil microbes. Her co-edited book Thinking with Soils, and the co-led special issue on soils in the Environmental Humanities journal set the scene for the dynamically growing area of soil humanities.

Dr Krzywoszynska’s academic work and practice are deeply interdisciplinary. At the University of Oulu, she leads one of the streams of the Biodiverse Anthropocenes programme, as well as leading the Lively Lab research group. She acts as a member of the Advisory Board for the Horizon Europe Mission Soil Deal for Europe, and she is a co-lead of one of the Commissions of the International Union of Soil Science. She is also the founder and lead of the Soil Care Network.

She aims to highlight how farmers can benefit from ecosystem services in realistic commercial contexts, and how to use scientific evidence in policy and practice.

Raquel Falcão is completing her PhD at the Czech Technical University in Prague.

She is an Environmental Engineer and has worked with surface drainage projects, OAC and hydrological studies in railway projects. 

She is currently a PhD student in the area of soils with a focus on erosive processes, both with modeling and experimental research.

Professor Leo Condron is the Editor-in-Chief of the Soil Use and Management journal (SUM) which is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2025.

Leo was born in Glasgow and completed a BSc Honours degree in Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, before moving to New Zealand to undertake a PhD in Soil Science at the University of Canterbury (Lincoln College).

He has over 38 years’ experience in academia and research, and his research has predominantly investigated the impacts of land use and management practices on phosphorus and organic matter dynamics in grassland and forest soils, soil chronosequence biogeochemistry, and relationships between soil microbial diversity and function. This body of research has contributed to significantly advancing understanding of the importance of biological processes in determining the bioavailability and utilisation of phosphorus in soil-plant systems, which was recognised by the award of Doctor of Science degree by the University of Canterbury in 2016.

Professor Condron has published over 300 articles to date (including 280 journal papers), and he has made a significant contribution to capability development through the supervision of over 120 postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Professor Jim Harris FRSB, FIAgrE, FBSSS is Chair of Environmental Technology at Cranfield University.

Jim is best known for his work in ecological restoration and systems ecology, particularly in characterising the role of the soil microbial community to provide unambiguous signals of the state of ecosystems across the land use spectrum, and more broadly the role of complexity in ecological restoration and the resilience of ecosystems.

His work has informed the development of principles, guidance and standards locally, nationally, regionally and internationally, and bridged the gap between reporting what we know of the state of land systems to clear prescriptions for restoring ecosystem structure and function.

Credit: Cranfield University

Dan is a Senior Lecturer in Soil Formation at Cranfield University. He leads both fundamental and applied research on soil formation and the parent materials from which soil is formed. His work focuses on the interactions between parent materials and soils, how soil parent materials support soil ecosystem services, and the natural and anthropogenic threats to the parent material zone. He also studies how soil formation can be accelerated, such as the manufacturing of new soils for urban green infrastructure.

Dan is the Early Career Scientist representative for the European Geoscience Union, representing more than 20,000 Early Career Scientists from more than 20 geoscience disciplines across the Union. Previously, he was former ECS Representative for the Union’s Soil System Science division and the National ECS Officer for the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS).

Dan Lambeth is a member of the BSSS Board and is a Senior Leader in policy, public affairs and communications. His career spans public and private sectors, including leadership roles at global institutions and advisory work on complex, high-impact issues such as sustainable finance, digital innovation, and geopolitical risk. He has over 20 years’ experience in government and the financial services industry, most recently at J.P. Morgan, where he led the firm’s sustainability agenda in Europe, advising and reporting on the management of sustainability risk across all asset classes and sectors.

Ben Sykes MRSB is Executive Director of the Ecological Continuity Trust (ECT).

Ben is a biologist by training, also with a Masters in science communication. He spent 22 years working with the UK Research Councils (BBSRC), including six years as Executive Director of the UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN).

Richard Bardgett is Chair of Ecology at Lancaster University. 

Richard Bardgett CBE is a soil ecologist whose research explores how and why interactions between plants, their roots, and soil microbial communities regulate biogeochemical cycles and their response to climate change. He has bridged plant and soil ecology to gain a predictive understanding of how plant functional traits shape soil microbial communities and biogeochemical cycles from local to global scales, and how vegetation shifts in response to climate change impact biogeochemical cycles.

The Ecological Continuity Trust (ECT) was formed in 2008 and is a unique ecological research charity working across the UK to support long-term ecological field experiments and monitoring. ECT currently maintains a national register of 36 active LTEs across 37 sites in all four nations of the UK.

Kate Humble is the BSSS Patron and an award-winning broadcaster with a career spanning thirty years.  As a presenter of factual programmes for UK and international TV networks, she has built a strong reputation as a trusted and respected voice for nature and wildlife, the environment, and rural affairs.

She is author of five non-fiction books and has been a columnist for UK magazines and broadsheet newspapers, and writes regularly for a number of publications on sustainable travel, rural issues and nature-based solutions for mental health and well-being.

 Andy Cato, Wildfarmed co-founder, is an award-winning mixed arable and livestock farmer. He was awarded the 2020 Laureate Nationale for innovation in agroecology and the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole for his work in France. Back on British soil and farming as a tenant of the National Trust, Andy founded Wildfarmed, a food and farming business that grows regenerative wheat to make flour, with his co-founders George Lamb and Edd Lees. His belief is that food and farming are our greatest points of agency to deal with the multiple crises with which we are faced.

Dr Lizzie Sagoo is BSSS President-Elect and a soil scientist and director at ADAS. Lizzie’s research at ADAS focusses on agricultural soil science, including on soil quality, nutrient management, recycling organic materials to land, diffuse pollution of the air and water environments from agriculture, and precision farming techniques to improve soil and nutrient management.

Lizzie is a STEM ambassador, a Country Trust ‘Soil champion’ and a ‘Form the Future’ volunteer ambassador. She has engaged with primary, secondary and sixth form college students on soil science education and careers in soil science. Lizzie has been a member of the Society for over 20 years, and has supported BSSS on the Grants and Awards, Outreach, and SEESOIL committees.