100 years of the International Union of Soil Sciences

1500 scientists, practitioners, and policymakers with a passion for soil came together in Florence, Italy, last month for the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) Centennial Congress. It was 100 years ago that soil science was recognised as a discipline in its own right, and the first international conference was held in Italy.

100 years later, and there are active soil science societies in most countries of the world (including Australia), and the IUSS is the forum in which they come together and share advances in our understanding of soil. The IUSS congress highlights the importance of soil in underpinning so many of the ecosystem services that we depend upon, including food production.

Soil CRC CEO Dr Michael Crawford attended this year’s congress and presented an oral paper on the Soil CRC, focussing on the benefits of a multi-disciplinary, multi-partner approach to address soil issues.

“I was impressed by how widespread the existing awareness of the Soil CRC was internationally, with many people that I met commending us on the job we are doing in Australia,” he said.

Dr Crawford’s other congress highlights included:

• Soil CRC Patron and former National Soils Advocate, The Hon Penny Wensley, receiving the IUSS Distinguished Services Medal
• Prof Alex McBratney from University of Sydney delivering an opening keynote speech on the evolution of pedology
• Carbon, carbon, carbon – it got a mention in just about every second talk!
• Connecting with the ~25 Australians there, punching above our weight
• Dr Aakansha Chadha from Federation University’s Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) presenting a talk on the Soil CRC project on soil performance indicators (Project 2.1.006).

Find out more

• Read about the Soil CRC soil indicators project in CeRDI’s latest newsletter
• Find out about our new soil indicators project