{"id":2,"date":"2021-01-23T15:17:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T15:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-soils\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2025-09-05T08:58:44","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T08:58:44","slug":"meet-the-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/sustainable-soils\/meet-the-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Current Members"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tProf. John Quinton<\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t John is a Professor of Soil Science who works on the importance of soils for the functioning of our planet, their degradation and interaction with water quality and the future sustainability of agriculture. He is at home in the field, lab and is also interested in the ways in which we use models to simulate soil processes.\u00a0<\/span>He is one of the founding Executive Editors of the European Geosciences open access journal <\/span>SOIL<\/i> that emphases the role soil plays in many disciplines. His track record mixes fundamental and applied science, critical to the impact of his work in both the scientific and policy arenas.<\/span><\/p> Prof. Jess Davies<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Jess is a Professor of Sustainability and her work sits at the intersection between systems engineering, environmental sciences and business. She is interested in how we can improve our capacity to manage and invest in soils to enhance their sustainability and delivery of vital food, water and carbon services. Jess uses computer modelling to predict how soils will respond to climate change, pollution, and changes in land use and practice, and is interested in how we can draw on the revolution in digital technologies and data sciences to transform our understanding and management of soils.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> Jess leads a diverse \u00a316M research and innovation portfolio including projects on soil sustainability, food systems and net-zero solutions. She is an appointed member of the Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs Nutrient Management Expert Group and is Director of the Centre for Global Eco-innovation at 91快活林.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Dr. Hongmei Chen<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Hongmei is a research associate who works in the NERC funded \u201cLOCKED UP<\/a>\u201d project with Nick Ostle, Jeanette Whitaker, and Niall McNamara. Her work focuses on the biotic and abiotic drivers underlying the resilience and persistence of soil organic matter under land-use and climate change. She has a broad interest in belowground processes especially the root ecology and the linkages between plants and soils.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Dr. Mengyi Gong<\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Mengyi is a research associate in the Department of Maths and Stats at 91快活林. She is interested in developing and applying statistical methods to environmental data. It all started with her PhD at the University of Glasgow where she developed a model to explore the spatiotemporal patterns in the remote sensing lake temperature and chlorophyll data. During her time at the British Geological Survey, she worked alongside the hydrogeologists in the Survey to explore the data of the groundwater systems. Both works fall into the theme of harnessing the power of a large data set to improve our understanding of the environment.<\/span><\/p> Mengyi is currently working on the Signals in the Soils<\/a> project, where statistical models and machine learning tools are used to investigate the temporal dynamics and dependences between various soil time series from ground based sensors.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Fiona Pearce<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Fiona is a PhD student working on the restoration of degraded grassland soils. Her research is focussed on semi-arid grasslands (savannas) in Kenya and looks at how soil condition can be improved to benefit both food production (livestock grazing) and environmental outcomes. She works with the International Livestock Research Centre (ILRI) in Kenya and is also affiliated with UKCEH and the British Geological Survey.<\/span><\/p> Fiona has taken the scenic route to starting a PhD, having worked in policy, GIS and catchment management in New Zealand and the UK. \u00a0Her interest in soils developed from working with farmers and agronomists to protect water quality by reducing soil erosion and nutrient losses, the key to which was often improved soil health. She is passionate about sustainable food production and ecosystem restoration, and is interested in how we can use our understanding of plant-soil-microbe interactions to contribute to both of these goals.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Johanna<\/span> is a Senior Research Associate working on the NERC-funded CARRI project, alongside Jess Davies, Phil Haygarth, and colleagues at the James Hutton Institute. An Earth scientist and soil biogeochemist, Johanna<\/span>\u2019s research focuses on the connectivity of elemental cycles\u2014particularly carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus\u2014and how these are influenced by climate change.<\/p> She has previously worked at two world-leading Free Air CO\u2082 Enrichment (FACE) facilities: EucFACE in Sydney, Australia, and BIFOR FACE in Staffordshire, UK. There, she used stable and radio isotopes to investigate how nitrogen and phosphorus cycling interacts with carbon in soil organic matter decomposition and soil formation at the soil\u2013plant interface.<\/p> At Lancaster, Johanna<\/span> is developing process-based models to explore carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus dynamics in riparian zones, from site-level studies through to catchment and landscape scales.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Cristina McBride-Serrano<\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Cristina now works for Defra in soil protection. She did her PhD and worked as\u00a0 a soil and root scientist at 91快活林 and the James Hutton Institute (JHI) interested in improving the resilience of agricultural systems to abiotic stress. Previously a <\/span>SHui<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>research technician in LEC investigating t<\/span>he impact of cover crop mixtures under-sown in maize on soil structure and water retention in Cumbria, she is now a PhD student. Her research, funded by JHI and the Perry Foundation, focuses on<\/span>\u00a0the impact of cover crop diversity on rhizosheath formation and soil erosion under drought stress.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t Jennifer Davies<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t Jenny gained her PhD working on the development of an integrated phosphorus modelling system to help make more efficient use of phosphorus fertilisers and minimise diffuse phosphorus pollution of watercourses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> She grew up on a dairy farm in Cheshire so, agriculture and its sustainability are something that she has always been passionate about. As a qualified nutrient management adviser and after working with farmers and land managers as an agricultural consultant, she was drawn back to research. Resource protection and nutrient management within productive agricultural systems have since become the main focus for her research and career aspirations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\tAlumni<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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