Rising Soil Stars
Wednesday 28 August 2019 from 17:00 to 18:30
The science communication competition Rising Soil Stars allowed ten young researchers to pitch their work to a broad audience in just three minutes, using nothing but a single slide to support their talk. In the end, the jury and the audience decided who deserved the title of Rising Soil Star the most.
Participants of the Rising Soil Stars competition were sponsored through the Short Course and Conference Sponsorship Program of the European Association of Geochemistry (EAG). Through this sponsorship, each selected candidate received a €100 discount on their conference fee. Marie-Aude Hulshoff from EAG also generously agreed to act as one of the jury members during the competition.
The Rising Soil Stars were prepared for their pitch by Emma Holmes from EEH productions. Emma is a Wageningen-based performer, storyteller and trainer with ample experience in science communication. She sat with every participant separately, giving tips and tricks for their pitches, and hosted a group workshop in which participants could also practice on stage.
We like to thank both Emma and EAG for their contributions!
The 10 Rising Soil Stars
‘JURY WINNER’ – Muhammad Aammar Tufail – University of Trento, Italy
Ssssshhh! Bacteria are coming to help you
Collins Amoah-Antwi – Warsaw University Of Technology, Poland
Structural characterization of humic acids for predicting SOM turnover
Fabio Corradini – Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands
Could the use of sludge as fertilizer be a gateway for microplastics to soils?
Anja Derycke – Ghent University, Belgium
Sampling contaminated sites: matching theory and practice
Thangavelautham Geretharan – School of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, New Zealand
Is phosphate fertiliser derived soil fluorine harmful to N fixation by white clover?
Anna Gomes – University of California, Davis and Lund University, Sweden
What About the Water? Conservation Agriculture in California’s San Joaquin Valley
‘RUNNER UP’ – Lisa Joos – ILVO – Flanders Research Institute for agriculture, fisheries and food, Belgium
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing
‘AUDIENCE WINNER’ – Jeanne Maréchal – University of Rennes 1 (ECOBIO) and Sol Paysage company, France
Psychoanalysis of an urban earthworm
Lauren Menandro – Brazilian Biorenewables National Laboratory (LNBR / CNPEM) and University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
If the BIOworld is better, soil quality matters
Lena Schulte-Uebbing – Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands
A sustainability indicator for nitrogen management should combine both environment and food production
Watch the full contest:
Jury Members
The pitches have been assessed by a diverse jury panel consisting of the following members:
- Thomas Crowther: assistant professor at ETH Zürich and founder of the Crowther lab; keynote speaker during the Wageningen Soil Conference and finalist of the Swiss FameLab 2019 pitch competition
- Janna Barel: post-doc in the Soil Biology Group at Wageningen University & Research; speaker during the opening of the Academic Year 2018/2019 at Wageningen University
- Philip Minderhoud: post-doc in the Department of Physical Geography at Utrecht University; former speaker and winner public prize at the 2018 global meeting of the Three Minute Thesis pitch competition
- Pieter Ploeg M.Sc.: Project Coordinator at Common Soil and Summer of Soil; experienced in translating soil science knowledge to the general public
- Marie-Aude Hulshoff BA: Chief Operating Officer at the European Association of Geochemistry; editorial manager of several EAG publications