Senior researcher at the Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation in Puławy. Main research interests are: soil quality and health, soil threats, ecotoxicology and ecological risk assessment. Participated in several completed EU projects: PROLAND, HORIZONTAL-ORG, Soils4EU, EJP Soil SIREN. Recently involved in the EJP Soil SERENA internal project (Soil Ecosystem seRvises and soil threats modEling and mApping). Currently engaged in the PREPSOIL project (Preparing for the 'Soil Deal for Europe' Mission), a task related to soil monitoring. In addition, a member of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS), the Polish Soil Science Society and the INSOP and NETSOB networks.

I am currently doing my PhD in Thuenen Institute in Germany. With a background in pedometrics, I am passionate about using data science to address environmental challenges. My primary interests is in developing and optimizing predictive models, conducting geospatial analysis, and quantifying model uncertainties to improve the accuracy and reliability of environmental insights.

Ana Romero Freire holds a PhD in Earth and Life Sciences from the University of Granada and VU Amsterdam. With extensive postdoctoral experience at various European institutions, Dr. Romero-Freire leads a project at the University of Granada focusing on metal pollution and ecotoxicology, and co-leads the Spanish Living Lab of the European project SOILCRATES. She has published over 40 papers, received multiple awards, and actively engages in teaching and knowledge transfer, fostering collaboration among stakeholders to address critical soil health challenges.

Annalaura has a background on Environmental Science, and gained experience in European projects coordination. She has experimented activities involving citizens, academia and institutions through participatory methods and tools.
Annalaura is project officer at the National Association of Italian Municipalities of Tuscany (ANCI Toscana), lead partner of the HuMUS - Healthy Municipal Soils project, funded by the Horizon Europe programme within the Mission Soil.

Anne Hoek van Dijke is researcher regenerative agriculture at the Louis Bolk Institute, the Netherlands. She has a degree in Earth and Environment from Wageningen University. Afterwards, she worked at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology and Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry on linking vegetation and hydrology, and she got her PhD from the Laboratory of Remote Sensing at Wageningen University. Since 2024, she works in team soil at the Louis Bolk Institute, where she studies the effect of regenerative practices on soil- and crop quality.

My name is Anne-Cathrine, and I am a post-doctoral fellow at Aarhus University in Denmark with a background in biology. During my PhD studies, I examined prokaryotic diversity and community composition across various habitat and land-use types in Denmark, as well as the degree and distribution of soil water repellency. My research combines biology, particularly microbial ecology, with soil science to better understand the complex interactions between soils and their microbial communities, along with the drivers of soil biodiversity.

Annett Wania holds a PhD in Geography and has 21 years of experience in using geospatial and Earth Observation data for the analysis of the impact of human activities. After obtaining her PhD in Geography from the University of Strasbourg, France, she has been working at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre for 13 years on applications in the environmental and agricultural domain as well as applications on urban environments and disaster management. During the last six years at JRC she was working on satellite-based mapping for disaster management under the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. During her time at the JRC she has transitioned from conducting technical work to managing scientific and technical projects and teams. Since January 2021 she is working at Planet Labs in the Earth Observation Lab, where she is managing a team of six engineers and data scientists which is implementing a number of research and development projects aiming at testing and further developing Planet’s image products for applications in the environmental and agricultural domain (crop classification, phenology, environmental impact of mining activities). In addition to traditional remote sensing methods, the team’s focus is on experimenting with innovative machine learning techniques to extract information from Planet’s high-cadence imagery and multi-modal datasets and define solutions for customers, which help them build new applications based on Planet data.

Dr. Asier Uribeetxebarria began working in the field of precision agriculture in 2014. He initially focused on precision viticulture, using non-invasive sensors to measure vineyard vigor variability and to identify areas with different requirements. In subsequent years, he worked with stone fruit trees, analyzing soil-tree interactions. For this purpose, he mapped soil variability through apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) and related certain field-measured soil variables to ECa intensity using multivariate statistical techniques. Tree vigor variability was measured through vegetative indices obtained by remote sensors (airplane, drone) and field sampling.

Since field measurements require substantial effort, Dr. Asier Uribeetxebarria also worked on optimizing sampling efforts by using auxiliary information-based sampling methods that capture crop variability and thus reduce sample numbers without sacrificing accuracy. The sampling techniques used were stratified sampling and rank sampling. Concurrently, while working with stone fruit trees, he continued his work in viticulture, but with a completely different focus, aiming this time to optimize pesticide dosage. However, one constant remained: the use of auxiliary information obtained through remote sensing and data analysis via multivariate and geostatistical techniques.

In recent years, his research has focused on optimizing fertilizer use in extensive crops. To achieve this, he has been working on fine-tuning yield estimation using machine learning techniques. Many of the data used to feed the algorithms come from remote sensors, such as satellites (primarily Sentinel-2) or LiDAR flights conducted by the Basque Government.

Barbara is passionate about sustainability, innovation, and circularity, particularly within the agri-food sector. Her work focuses on facilitating collaboration between farmers, researchers, and stakeholders to co-create and share innovative solutions for the sector's most pressing challenges.
She is a junior consultant at Innomine, a Budapest-based Digital Innovation Hub dedicated to fostering innovation and sustainability across Europe. Innomine has been actively engaged in EU-funded projects for over a decade, participating throughout the entire project lifecycle - from ideation and consortium building to professional management of project implementation. The company's core strengths lie in fostering innovation, advancing digital transformation, and promoting sustainability and circularity through the effective use of research and cross-sector collaboration.

Bas is a soil scientist with a PhD in digital soil mapping from Wageningen University, an MSc in Soil Inventory and Land Evaluation and an MSc in Geo-Information Science and Remote Sensing from the same institute.

His professional career evolved around developing soil information products with digital soil mapping techniques in various countries worldwide. Bas started his career at Wageningen Environmental Research, where he worked on updating soil maps of Dutch peatlands. He joined ISRIC in 2012 and currently manages and contributes to projects that develop soil information products and systems. Bas is also responsible for the operations management of ISRIC.

Chris is an environmental data analyst from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and is based at the Bangor office in Wales. He specialises in applied statistical and spatial analysis of soils data including large-scale monitoring datasets and digital maps of soil health related properties such as organic carbon content. He also has interests in processes germane to the soil-freshwater interface, particularly soil erosion, soil compaction and river channel change, and has experience applying spatial and process-based models to better understand these environmental issues.

I am a researcher in agroecology at Wageningen Research Field Crops. I mainly work in the North of the Netherlands with farmer groups and our experimental farm in Valthermond. My focus is on cropping systems like strip cropping and intercropping and their impact on soil health, crop
resilience, and biodiversity.

I graduated in Chemical Engineering at University of Murcia, and I did a Master in Advanced Techniques in Agricultural and Food Research and Development at Technical University of Cartagena. Now I’m a PhD student in soil science at the Soil and Water Conservation Research Group of CEBAS-CSIC with a deep interest in how we can increase long-term carbon sequestration in the soil using novel agricultural land management practices within the context of climate change just as improve its water resources and associated ecosystem services.

David is a Principal research scientist at UKCEH specialising in soil science and monitoring. He is responsible for UKCEH soil observatories and elements of national soil monitoring in the UK. In addition, his research interests focus on soil physics including soil hydrology, structure and erosion. Moreover, he investigates soil physical function and its interplay with biology, within the wider context of soil monitoring and ecosystem service assessment in response to climate and land use change drivers.

A major focus of my work is to understand how plant and soil systems interact with the biophysical environment, and how this intersects with socioeconomic and policy mechanisms around the food system. Specifically, I have focused on co-existing environmental and climatic stresses, including pollution, heat, drought, soil erosion, and nutrient stresses and their implications on biogeochemical cycles, greenhouse-gas fluxes, carbon dynamics across plant-soil-atmosphere, and nutrient acquisition efficiencies of plants. I have used a range of approaches that include controlled experiments, crop and pollution impact models, and conceptual models (for policy and economic impacts).

I am also interested in exploring how to engage wider actors and people in addressing urgent challenges, specifically around food systems, agriculture, and soil. A central aspect of my current work is dedicated to shaping a framework for reorienting soil health education within the broader perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Els is a data scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology with expertise in modelling and statistical analyses of soil data. She is also part of the data stewardship team at her organisation and provides expert guidance in all aspects of data stewardship, data management plans, and data publication. She has a strong interest in plant-soil feedbacks and how soil properties and functions react to drivers of change and human interventions with a focus on agricultural and forest ecosystems.

Emiel Elferink is a professor of Sustainable Soil Management at Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences. He studied Biology at the University of Groningen, where he developed an early interest in sustainability issues within agriculture and food production. This led him to specialize in Energy and Environmental Sciences for his graduation.

After completing his PhD, Emiel worked at CLM Research and Advice and Bioclear Earth, where he was involved in integrated research projects at the intersection of agriculture, climate, and soil. In 2016, he joined Van Hall Larenstein as a professor of Sustainable Soil Management.

As a professor, Emiel focuses on developing knowledge and innovations that contribute to healthy soil management. His research group examines how sustainable soil management can help address soil related challenges such as climate change, food security, biodiversity, and water quality.

Ester Miglio is the Science Lead for SoilHive, a public soil data platform dedicated to empowering stakeholders in the collaborative restoration of soil health. With a strong focus on leveraging soil data, she aims to enhance global soil monitoring and improve sustainable agricultural practices. Ester is passionate about the intersection of science, technology, and agriculture, particularly how information and technology (ICT) can drive social good and innovation to create positive impacts on ecosystems and communities.

Ester holds a Bachelor’s degree in Land and Agro-Forestry Science from the University of Bologna, a Master’s degree in Soil Chemistry and Biology from Wageningen University, and a Second-Level Master’s in ICT for Social Good and Development from the University of Turin.

Fabio Fracchetti is co-founder and COO at Microbion. He holds holding a Master Degree in “Agri-Industrial Biotechnology”. He completed a PhD program in “Applied Biotechnology” with a specialization in “Enological and Viticultural Biotechnology” and a strong connection with producers of selected microbial cultures. In 2010 he received the Master Degree in “Biotechnology law” focusing the attention on the juridical bases and case-studies about the patenting of selected microbial cultures.

Fabio Volkmann is a facilitator of multi-stakeholder processes which focus on driving a farmer-led transformation of the European food system. As EU Partnership Manager at Climate Farmers, he works to advance regenerative agriculture, improve soil health, and ensure resilient farming livelihoods by fostering collaboration among farmers, policymakers, researchers, and other relevant stakeholders. Fabio also advises the Soil Mission Cluster and has contributed to events like the Climate Farming Conference and the EARA conference

I am Fatemeh Hateffard, a postdoctoral researcher at Stockholm University. My background is in soil science, with interests in soil mapping, remote sensing, and machine learning. Currently, I am engaged in the AI4SoilHealth project (WP4), focusing on soil spectroscopy and evaluating and testing new soil health indicators across different pilot sites.

MAARTEN VAN DAM
Partner Pymwymic

Areas of responsibility: Investor Relations & Business Development

Maarten joined Pymwymic (the Put Your Money Where Your Meaning Is Community) as member of the management team 10 years ago. Within this impact investing cooperative (with its focus on healthy food systems) his main responsibility is investor relations and business development. With 20 years of entrepreneur-investor experience, Maarten is driven to make things happen. His passion for food, agriculture and SME’s has led him to also become board member of the 200 year-old farming cooperative Wilhelminapolder and SBNL Nature Fund, as well as co-owner of two sustainable wood companies. Eight years ago, together with his wife and three daughters, Maarten decided to further ‘Put his Money Where his Meaning Is’ and develop their own farm in Leersum showcasing the newest developments in nature-inclusive farming.
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I am a soil ecologist working as a post-doc at the NIOO on an EU Soil Missions project who aims to share simple, indicative information about soil biodiversity that contributes to healthy soils. I completed my PhD from the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University working on phylogeography of soil invertebrates in Southern hemisphere ecosystems.

Dr. Hui Xu obtained her PhD from Ghent University, Belgium, specializing in the stabilization of belowground biomass in soil. She is currently engaged in two major EU soil mission projects on Carbon Farming. In the MARVIC project, Dr. Xu co-leads the coordination efforts for the development and testing of a harmonized, context-specific MRV system applicable across Europe, focusing on the integration of monitoring methods across different land uses and at the whole farm level. Additionally, she is leading a Focus Group dedicated to using data from long-term monitoring sites in the context of carbon farming in the 'CREDIBLE' project, which aims to establish a network of networks to address challenges in Carbon Farming.

My name is Harsha Vardhan Kaparthi, an Indian citizen, currently pursuing the PhD program in Italy. I am a dedicated engineer with a strong focus on orbital mechanics and earth observation. I am currently residing in Trento, Italy, I have a Master’s degree in Engineering from Sapienza University of Rome, where I graduated with a final grade of 103/110. My master's thesis, titled "Numerical Analysis on the Stability of Relative Motion in the presence of Perturbations," explored the relative motion of spacecraft in close proximity, considering harmonic perturbations and impulsive maneuvers.

Prior to my master's degree, I completed a Bachelor of Technology at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad, India, achieving a final grade of 77.01%. My undergraduate thesis examined the effects of quenching and partitioning in carbon steels and tool steels, showcasing the ability to engage with complex engineering concepts.

In addition to my academic accomplishments, I gained practical experience during my apprenticeship at the National Skill Training Institute in Hyderabad, India, where I completed an advanced training course in automotive fuel systems in internal combustion engines.

I am proficient in multiple languages, including Telugu (native), English (C1), Hindi (C1), and has intermediate knowledge (A2 level) of Italian language. I have strong digital skills, being adept in various software tools such as Microsoft Office, AutoCAD, CATIA V5, ANSYS Workbench CFD, MATLAB, and Simulink, along with foundational knowledge in programming languages like C, C++, Java, and Python.

As an aspiring engineer, I am aiming to secure a challenging position that leverages my technical expertise and fosters innovation. I am committed to utilizing my skills to contribute meaningfully to projects while being recognized for my hard work, honesty, and sincerity.

I am an environmental and soil scientist, having a broad education from Geoecology (Bachelor at the KIT, Karlsruhe), over Environmental Sciences (Master at the ETH Zürich), to Soil Science (PhD at the ETH Zürich the Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf). Now, I am working with our Startup Digit Soil on a portable device that can measure soil extracellular enzymatic activity. Within the AI4SoilHealth project we contribute to the section novel sensors and soil health parameters.

Dr. Jason Ackerson is a Research Soil Scientist and Program Director for several soil carbon measurement and technology discovery projects at the Soil Health Institute. Dr. Ackerson previously served as an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in the Department of Agronomy at Purdue University, where his research focused on developing proximal sensors to quantify soil properties and develop digital soil maps. He received his B.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Science from the University of Illinois and M.S. and Ph.D. in Soil Science from Texas A&M University. Dr. Ackerson is a member of the Soil Science Society of America and American Geophysical Union.

I am Javier Gonzalez Canales, a Phd student working at IMIDRA (Madrid Institute for Rural, Agricultural, and Food Research and Development). My thesis examines the effects of different soil management practices and irrigation doses on soil health in olive orchards, tree phenology, and olive oil quality. In my thesis research i am comparing the effects of different soil management practices and irrigation doses on soil health in olive orchards, tree phenology, and olive oil quality

I am a Geological Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), with a master's degree in Environmental Geology and Geological Resources with a specialty in Hydrogeology and Soils from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), and a Ph.D. in the Department of Edaphology of the Faculty of Pharmacy (UCM). I have developed my research in the field of soil contamination by heavy metals, the effects of soil use on its quality, and the influence of different agricultural management on soil biological activity. I am currently developing various research projects related to the use of cover crops in woody crops within the Madrid Institute for Rural, Agricultural and Food Research and Development (IMIDRA).

At ISRIC, Laura contributes to and manages digital soil mapping and spatial modelling projects, integrating ground observations with remote sensing data. She is responsible for developing modelling approaches for new mapped soil products (properties and functions) to support sustainable land management in a changing climate. Reproducible research (workflows and results) and the use of open-source tools for spatial analysis are key components of methodological development. Examples of projects in which Laura is involved are SoilGrids and ESA-WorldSoils.

Laura's main interests are in pedometrics and digital soil mapping, how to develop new covariates from remote sensing products and how to integrate soil data in the wider context of environmental modelling.

Laura Sofie Harbo is a Danish soil scientist working at the Thünen Institute for Climate-Smart Agriculture in Germany, focusing on the use of data from national soil inventories for statistical analyses and modelling of soil carbon dynamics at national and European scales. She also works on how to improve estimates of soil organic carbon stocks for national greenhouse gas reporting and quantification of carbon sequestration in agricultural soil.

Lexy Ratering Arntz is product manager Planetary Variables at Planet. She strives to apply Planet's data building blocks and other remote sensing products to monitor - and thereby facilitate - the impact of regenerative farming on European landscapes. She has experience in climate (drought and flood) monitoring and agricultural risk management.

Lucas de Carvalho Gomes is a soil scientist with a strong focus on digital soil mapping, soil health and spatial assessment of ecosystem services. He currently holds a postdoctoral position at Aarhus University's Department of Agroecology where he is applying machine learning approaches to map soil properties from field to Pan-Europeans scales.

Dr. Lur Epelde (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4624-4946) is a researcher at NEIKER-Basque Institute of Agricultural Research & Development and the coordinator of its Soil Microbial Ecology Group (www.soilmicrobialecology.com). During her PhD (University of the Basque Country, 2009), she gained extensive experience in using microbial indicators of soil health to assess the efficiency of phytoremediation processes. Currently, she continues to study soil microbial properties, including high-throughput sequencing technologies, to monitor the impact of various environmental stressors (e.g., pollution, agricultural practices, and climate change). She is also interested in the spread of antibiotic resistance in agricultural soils fertilized with organic amendments of animal or human origin. Finally, she takes part in outreach activities promoting soil health using Soil Health Cards as a tool (www.lurzain.eus). Throughout her career, she has completed research stays at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, the Institute for Environmental Genomics at the University of Oklahoma, the Genetics in Ecology department at the University of Vienna, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

I am a researcher working on soil contaminants. I deal with field and spectrometry data measured from soil samples. I am skilful at applying a variety of artificial intelligent methods and tools, including machine learning, explainable machine learning, and python programming in this field of work. Furthermore, I am proficient at using remote sensing imagery to analyse and get information, specially from soil. To wrap up, I combine soil spectrometry, remote sensing, and artificial intelligence to advance our understanding of soil health.

María Higueras-Valdivia is a PhD student in the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Granada. Her research focuses on biogeochemical and ecotoxicological approaches in soil systems, with a particular emphasis on technology-critical elements (TCEs). Her work investigates the interactions of these elements within soil environments, their ecotoxicological impacts, and their behavior and mobility in the environment. The aim of her research is to enhance knowledge on soil sustainability and health in the context of TCE contamination and to contribute to responsible management of these elements in agriculture and other industrial sectors.

Mario Paniagua-López is a Spanish researcher specialized in soil sciences and bioremediation, focusing on sustainable methods for remediating soils polluted by metal(loid)s. He holds a PhD in Earth Sciences from the University of Granada, where he also completed a Master’s degree in Conservation, Management, and Restoration of Biodiversity. His research is mainly focused on ecotoxicity, soil pollution, and the use of symbiotic and saprobic microorganisms for soil restoration. Currently based at the Spanish National Research Council, he has held various research positions in different institutions and multidisciplinary research groups related to soil and environmental sciences. He has contributed to several high-impact publications, exploring topics such as waste valorization for soil bioremediation and the ecological recovery of polluted environments. His work, therefore, has implications for advancing sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation through the development of innovative solutions for soil health and pollution mitigation. He currently aims to broaden his international research experience by pursuing a PostDoc at a foreign institution.

Original from Genova, Italy, I have a bachelor's degree in geology and a master’s in soil and water conservation. I obtained a doctorate degree from Washington State University (Pullman, WA), in soil science with focus on soil spectroscopy and proximal soil sensing. After one year of postdoc at WSU, I got a position as research scientist at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research (Palmerston North, New Zealand), where I was doing research in the spectroscopy laboratory working with a variety of sensors, passive gamma-ray, x-ray fluorescence, electromagnetic induction, MIR and NIR spectrophotometers. On 2018, during the two years in New Zealand, I received the Lynsey Welsh Award for Innovation in NIR Science.
After two years in Germany at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) as postdoc researcher, I decided to make the transition to the private sector, and joined Agrocares as sensor specialist, sharing his knowledge of spectroscopy and proximal sensing to improve the hardware and the applications, and support the farmers in their mission for an efficient and sustainable management of the fields.

Maud is a soil scientist specialising in biochemical interactions and particle transport within a landscape. She has a strong interest and experience in doing research in the Arctic and permafrost soils, focused on how complex Arctic landscapes have developed over time and continue to change at varying rates and spatial scales. Soil structure and changes in soil hydraulic properties form an important aspect of her work. She is also the pilot site coordinator for Plynlimon, Wales, as part of the AI4SoilHealth project.

I am a Research Associate at the Institute of Geo-Hydroinformatics, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) in Germany. My research focuses on combining statistical and machine learning approaches with process-based models to enhance water and food security. My academic journey began at Urmia University in Iran, where I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Water Engineering and a Master of Science in Water Resources Engineering. I then pursued a Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering – Water Resources at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey. Following my PhD, I held post-doctoral roles in the United Kingdom, first at The University of Manchester, where I integrated crop modeling, satellite data, and ground observations to strengthen agricultural insurance solutions. Later, at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, I focused on refining process-based crop models by incorporating biological and genetic insights. Subsequently, I served as an Assistant Professor at METU from January. Currently, as a Research Associate at TUHH, I am developing machine learning frameworks to assess Europe’s soil vulnerability to degradation under various land use and climate change scenarios, helping to identify sustainable land management practices and mitigation strategies that preserve long-term soil health.

Since 02.2024
Postdoc, Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel, Switzerland

02.2023 - 12.2024
Postdoc, Climate and Agriculture Group, Agrocscope

06.2017 - 11.202
PhD Student, Environmental Geosciences, University of Basel, Switzerland

10.2010 – 07.2013
MSc in Geography, University of Bonn, Germany
Master`s thesis: “Flood reconstruction on sedimentcores from lake Hallstättersee (Austria).”

I am a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Geo-Hydroinformatics of Hamburg University of Technology. My research focuses on the utilization of Artificial Intelligence for the assessment of soil salinity and nutrients. In 2019 I obtained my MSc in water resources and environmental management from Leibniz University of Hannover. During my master’s studies, my focus was on groundwater hydraulics, groundwater flow and transport modelling

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Dr. Serkan Isik is a postdoctoral researcher at OpenGeoHub, specializing in remote sensing, geocomputing, and spatial modeling. At OpenGeoHub, Serkan supports high-profile projects funded by the European Commission and other international bodies, focusing on the use of time-series Earth Observation data to monitor land degradation and assess land potential. His key responsibilities include time-series analysis of satellite data, modeling Gross Primary Productivity (GPP), identifying gaps between potential and actual ecosystem productivity, and mapping surface water dynamics. He also applies machine learning and statistical methods to build and refine models, with additional expertise in data visualization and satellite data analysis.

I am a PhD researcher based in Zurich, specializing in the application of machine learning within soil science. My research focuses on advancing the understanding of soil water retention curves (SWRC) by modeling their dynamic responses to seasonal changes and drought impacts on soil structure and health. Through this work, I aim to enhance current approaches, moving beyond static models and other traditional methods to capture the full, responsive behavior of SWRC over time.

I am a doctoral researcher at the Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems (ITES), affiliated with the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) and ETH Zurich. My research focuses on developing scalable and reliable indicators of soil health by analyzing soil macropore structure and connectivity. As part of the EU "AI4SoilHealth" initiative, I combine advanced imaging methods, such as X-ray tomography, with practical, in-field approaches to assess soil characteristics essential for processes like water filtration, nutrient cycling, and microbial activity. My work, conducted across various Swiss landscapes, aims to create accessible, cost-effective tools for large-scale soil health monitoring to support sustainable soil management aligned with the EU Soil Strategy for 2030.

I am a professional soil science researcher with more than eight years’ experience in agricultural research. I have a strong background in soil fertility, conservation agriculture, soil carbon and phosphorus dynamics, laboratory analysis, statistical data analysis, and spectroscopy. I am also a volunteering South African community of practice ambassador with ISRIC.

Olena Dorosh earned her Master's degree in Biotechnology for Sustainability in 2019 from the Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology António Xavier at NOVA University of Lisbon. She previously completed her Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry in 2017 at the NOVA School of Science and Technology.
Olena has worked as a researcher, with a Master's Student Fellow on the BioreVinery (PTDC/BII-BIO/30884/2017) and Honey+ (MTS/SAS/0077/2020) projects at REQUIMTE/LAQV-ISEP, Polytechnic University of Porto, Portugal. In 2022, she embarked on a Ph.D. in the Sustainable Chemistry doctoral program, supported by a grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT). Her thesis, titled "Burnt Soils: Sustainable Remediation Strategies," focuses on agrarian sciences, particularly on the sustainable valorization of agro-food wastes and the rehabilitation of burnt soils.
Her research primarily centers on the extraction of bioactive compounds from agricultural by-products using environmentally friendly techniques, with the subsequent incorporation of these extracts into value-added products. More recently, she has been exploring the use of agricultural wastes for biochar production, enriched with nutrients for controlled-release fertilizers aimed at rehabilitating burnt soils.
Olena has published nine papers in Web of Science-indexed journals and has co-authored 14 communications presented at both national and international conferences.

In 2020, I received my Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering at RWTH Aachen University. My master's studies were focused on the intricate and multifarious relations between water, energy, and food resources. Continuing my studies in Aachen and spending an exchange semester at the Politecnico di Milano, I graduated with a Master of Science in Sustainable Management – Water and Energy in 2023. For my master's thesis, I developed and implemented a methodology for a GIS-based analysis of area-specific water, energy, and nutrient resources.

Starting in 2024, I am currently a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) candidate at the Hamburg University of Technology's Institute of Geo-Hydroinformatics. My research concentrates on identifying key drivers shaping soil microbial community composition, and quantifying effects on soil microbial abundance, richness, and diversity caused by edaphic, climatic, and anthropogenic drivers.

Pete Smith is Professor of Soils and Global Change at the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland, UK), Science Director of the Scottish Climate Change Centre of Expertise (ClimateXChange) and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University (Beijing, PR China). His interests include climate change mitigation, soils, agriculture, food systems, ecosystem services modelling and nature-based solutions.

He has been a convening lead author on many reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Fellow of the Institute of Soil Scientists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, a Fellow of the European Science Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society (London).

I am a Senior Scientist at ETH Zurich (Environmental Systems Science). I study soil physical processes and their controlling structures at various scales ranging from pores to global mapping. As a lecturer, I teach soil physics and experimental methods to quantify processes in the vadose zone. I'm part of the AI4SoilHealth Project and manage the Swiss pilot site.

As a Senior Scientist in the Solutions Enablement group at Planet Labs, Piers works at the intersection of earth observation (EO) and machine learning to solve problems in the agricultural monitoring domain. His research interests include the development of EO-ML data infrastructure, and applications that leverage EO time series or the fusion of multiple EO modalities.

Ranjith Udawatta has been conducting research on ecosystem benefits of conservation practices for over 30 years. He evaluates water quality, soil carbon, soil physical parameters, competition for resources, and watershed management as influenced by agroforerstry, cover crops, conservation buffers, grass waterways, and crop rotation. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed publications, 15 book chapters, and over 500 abstracts.

Robert holds PhD in Physical Geography and has a background in Geoinformatics. He has experience with digital soil mapping and predictive modeling of forest disturbance using machine learning. At OpenGeoHub is a postdoctoral researcher. At OpenGeoHub, Robert supports current and future high profile European Commission-funded and other international projects where there is a need to develop new solutions for geocomputing, optimizing modeling frameworks and publishing the scientific outputs.

As an Agroecology PhD fellow at Aarhus University, I work on physics-based and physics-informed machine learning approaches for soil property mapping in the AI4SoilHealth project. My work also involves developing soil spectral models and using machine learning for the prediction of soil hydraulic parameters and texture at larger scales. By integrating existing knowledge into model training, I aim to enhance spatial accuracy and effectively handle sparse datasets.

Post-doctoral fellow in the department of Agroecology from Aarhus University in Denmark. During my PhD studies I worked on digital mapping of soil health indicators. I included in my project, the mapping of emergent soil health indicators in Denmark such as soil microbial diversity, soil water repellency, SOC sequestration potential, and tillage erosion.

Sonia is the Chief Technology Officer at Digit Soil, where she leads the development of affordable, advanced soil sensors to promote sustainable soil management on a global scale. With a PhD from ETH Zürich’s Plant Nutrition Group and a Master’s in Biotechnology from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Sonia combines a deep understanding of natural systems with cutting-edge engineering. Her work bridges soil science with practical technology, helping land managers access real-time data for smarter, more sustainable decision-making in soil health.

I divide my time between being a researcher at Stockholm University and working with a start-up company developing environmental sensors for citizen scientists. My research focuses on combining field data and satellite images for understanding and modelling landscape health and processes. My special interest is tropical wetlands and their functions.

Vera Proskynitopoulou is a Research Chemist at the Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH) specializing in sustainable waste management and environmental technology. Her research focuses on advanced treatment processes for digestate derived from anaerobic digestion, utilizing innovative techniques for nutrient and water recovery, as well as contaminant reduction. With extensive experience in executing EU-funded projects, her work aims to produce high-quality biofertilizers, supporting sustainable agricultural practices and advancing circular economy principles.

Vlatko Galić is a data scientist with over five years significant experience in biometrics, data science, and machine learning. He earned his PhD in molecular biosciences with a focus on bioinformatics, genomics, and biometrics. Currently a Research Associate at the Agricultural Institute Osijek, Vlatko works with large-scale genomics, spectroscopy, and imaging data, applying predictive modeling to agricultural and climatological contexts. He is proficient in both R and Python, enjoys tackling messy datasets, and has contributed to several patents. He values continuous learning.

Hello! I'm a PhD student with OpenGeoHub and Wageningen University, focusing on spatial-temporal modeling of soil organic carbon using machine learning techniques. My daily tasks involve organizing (messy) soil data, processing (a lot! of) earth observation data, developing and testing (weird) algorithms, as well as drinking coffee (quarreling or gossiping) with (lovely) colleagues. Glad to meet you and look forward to discussing soil science and everything else!

Dr. Yijian Zeng is an Associate Professor at the Department of Water Resources (WRS), Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands.

He is co-chair of ISMC (International Soil Modeling Consortium), which aims to integrate and advance soil system modeling, data gathering, and observational capabilities to address key global issues and stimulate the development of transdisciplinary and translational research activities.
Additionally, he serves as a member of the GLASS Panel (Global Land/Atmosphere System Study) of the GEWEX (The Global Energy and Water Exchanges) Project, which is a part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and is dedicated to understanding Earth’s water cycle and energy fluxes on and below the surface and in the atmosphere. The GLASS panel focuses on developing and evaluating models, with a particular emphasis on the new generation of land surface models.

He is also the co-lead of the GEWEX-SoilWat (Soil and Water) Initiative, a joint project between GEWEX and ISMC, which aims to improve the representation of soil and subsurface processes in climate models. The initiative brings together two research communities to identify challenges, opportunities, and unresolved issues in representing and parameterizing soil processes in ESMs, benchmarking philosophies, and critical soil datasets.

Yizan Li is a PhD candidate from Soil Biology Group, Wageningen University & Research. Her PhD research aims to develop a decision-support modeling tool to assess soil health and multifunctionality and suggest interventions in field management to improve the sustainability of the winter wheat-summer maize agroecosystem in the North China Plain.

My background is agronomy and environmental management.

I am also an environmentalist and works on big-data management and processing. My role is geoinformatician in OpenGeoHub. I am specialized in Global Lidar (GEDI and IceSat-2), processing and data structure, digital terrain modeling and parameterization, data parallelisation and cloud data storage. I code mainly in Bash and Python but also R for capacity building and technical support.