Zoom into Soil: Soil Use and Management Journal and Phosphorus Use Efficiency

In this webinar, Prof. Leo Condron and Pietro Sica discuss the Soil Use and Management journal (SUM) on its 40th anniversary and a leading paper from the journal on phosphorus use efficiency.

Professor Leo Condron is the Editor-in-Chief of the Soil Use and Management journal (since 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. Professor Condron has published over 300 articles to date and has made a significant contribution to capability development through the supervision of over 120 postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Pietro Sica holds a BSc in Agronomic Engineering from the University of São Paulo, an MSc in Sustainable Agriculture from the University of Padova, and an MSc in Crop and Soil Science from the University of Georgia. He earned his PhD in Soil Quality from the University of Copenhagen, where he also completed a postdoc focusing on phosphorus use efficiency from byproducts and residues under the guidance of Jakob Magid and Dorette Muller-Stöver. Currently, he is a Professor at the College of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo, specializing in sugarcane quality and industrial processing.