Dr. Andrew Margenot
Dr. Margenot is an Assistant Professor of Soil Science at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the impact of anthropogenic activities on soil services with an emphasis on food security from urban and rural agroecosystems in the U.S. Midwest and East Africa. Dr. Margenot received a B.A. in Philosophy; Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, from Connecticut College in 2010 and his Ph.D. in Soils and Biogeochemistry from University of California Davis in 2016. Dr. Margenot is a recipient of US Borlaug Fellow in Global Food Security and has authored and co-authored several peer review publications and book chapters on soil organic matter, soil fertility, and advanced methods of soil analysis. His research interests include Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Soil fertility in East Africa, Urban agriculture Phosphorus, Soil organic matter and enzymes
Dr. Rattan Lal
Dr. Rattan Lal is a Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and Director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at The Ohio State University, and an Adjunct Professor of University of Iceland. He received a B.S. from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India (1963); M.S. from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India (1965); and Ph.D. from the Ohio StateUniversity, Columbus, Ohio (1968). He served as Sr. Research Fellow with the University of Sydney, Australia (1968-69), Soil Physicist at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria (1970-87), and Professor of Soil Science at OSU (1987-to date). He has authored/co-authored 955 refereed journal articles and 543 book chapters, has written 22 and edited/co-edited 76 books. He was President of the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (1987-1990), International Soil and Tillage Research Organization (1988-1991), Soil Science Society of America (2006-2008), and the International Union of Soil Sciences (2017-2018). He is laureate of the GCHERA World Agriculture Prize (2018), Glinka World Soil Prize (2018), the Japan Prize (2019), the U.S. Awasthi IFFCO Prize (2019), and the World Food Prize (2020).