Agronomist, soil scientist and environmental microbiologist, Professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and affiliated with McGill University. His early research integrated microbiology with soil physics (University of Guelph, Prof. MJ Goss; University of Ottawa, Prof. S. Sattar) on microbial environmental quality in farming systems and the transport of microbes, including putative pathogens, through soils. At New Mexico State University, as co-PI for NAABB, he developed decision-support tools for integrating wastes to support economical microalgal biomass production, and as founding Associate Editor supported the journal Algal Research to its current Q1 status.

More recently he established the first Canadian graduate program focused on northern agriculture (Boreal Ecosystems and Agricultural Sciences, BEAS). He now works on the fertility of northern soils and the development of an integrated circumboreal research capacity to address the impact of climate change on northern agriculture and food security, and promotes the centrality of soils to human health, societal stability and ecosystem resilience.

He is Deputy Editor of Soil Use and Management, Vice-Chair of the IUSS Commission on Permafrost Affected Soils, and Eastern Councillor of the Canadian Soil Science Society.

Research interests

• Northern agriculture under climate change
• Soil and environmental health and quality
• Recycling and re-valorization of organic wastes for food security and carbon sequestration
• Microbiological drivers of soil fertility
• Pathogens in the environment
• Cultivation of algae for biomass and bio-products

Education

• BSc in Agronomy/Agricultural Engineering, Timisoara, Romania
• MSc and PhD in Soil Science, University of Guelph
• Postdoctoral fellow, Centre for Research in Environmental Microbiology, University of Ottawa