LOCAL ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Thomas Bolger

CHAIRMAN

Full Professor of Zoology, School of Biology & Environmental Science, University College Dublin Research Interests in the enumeration and assessment of the functional value of soil biodiversity in delivering ecosystem services. Works primarily with soil mesofauna has also used earthworms, amphipods and carabid beetles as model organisms.

Olaf Schmidt

VICE CHAIRMAN

Olaf Schmidt is a Professor at the School of Agriculture and Food Science, and a member of the UCD Earth Institute, at University College Dublin. He is committed to science education and teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in agricultural, environmental and biological sciences. His research interests are diverse and include linkages between land use, soil biology and soil functions, crop pest management, tick ecology, food authentication and the application of stable isotope techniques in any of the above.

Fiona Brennan

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Research officer, Teagasc (the Irish Agricultural and Food Development Authority)
Research Interests include microbial-soil-plant interactions in agronomic systems, and their relationship to the role of functional microbial communities in soil biogeochemical cycles and greenhouse gas emissions. She leads the Soil Microbiome sub-programme within Teagasc.

Tancredi Caruso

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Associate Professor of Ecology at University College Dublin. Research integrates experimental and theoretical approaches to investigate the ecological and evolutionary processes that structure terrestrial biodiversity in space and time with a main focus on soil biodiversity, the interactions between microbes, plants and animals, and how these interactions drive belowground and aboveground processes.

Evelyn Doyle

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Associate Professor, UCD School of Biology & Environmental Science, University College Dublin. Research focuses on environmental microbiology and the environmental factors affecting microbial activity as a means of developing strategies for the reduction of greenhouse gases, restoration of contaminated sites and development of sustainable agricultural systems.

Archie Murchie

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Senior Scientific Officer, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Northern Ireland. Research interests in sustainable pest management, insect monitoring, spatial distribution, targeting of insecticides and the impact of invasive species on earthworms.

Karl Richards

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Principal research officer, Teagasc (the Irish Agricultural and Food Development Authority).
Research interests focus on nitrogen dynamics in soil, nitrate leaching and denitrification in croplands and grazed grasslands with interest on the options to mitigate N2O emissions from soils, such as dietary manipulation, cover crops and the use of nitrification inhibitors

Saoirse Tracy

COMMITTEE MEMBER

Assistant Professor in Applied Plant Biology, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin.
Her research investigates root:soil interactions using X-ray Computed Tomography, which enables non-destructive 3D imaging of the rhizosphere