SCIENCE AT THE SHINE DOME canberra 7 - 9 may 2008
Awards and admission of new Fellows
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Frederick White Prize
Dr Ronald Smernik
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide
Ronald Smernik has a degree in science and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Sydney. In 1997, he returned to his agricultural ‘roots’, taking up a postdoctoral position in the Department of Soil Science (now the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences) at the University of Adelaide. The focus of his research is soil organic matter – the mostly dead and decaying remains of plants and microbes that play a key role in determining the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. Most recently he has been awarded an Australian Research Council QEII Fellowship to carry out research on the influence of organic matter on the toxicity and movement of organic pollutants in soils and sediments.
Doing science in the dirt
Soils are a vital part of the economy and the environment. They provide most of our food and key ‘ecosystem services’ such as water purification and waste disposal. Yet our scientific knowledge of soils is fairly rudimentary. My research focuses on soil organic matter, a key soil component that affects the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. Organic matter gives soil structure by holding particles of sand, silt and clay together; it reduces soil strength, enabling root penetration; it enhances water holding capacity and water infiltration; it comprises most of a soil’s nitrogen, and about half of its phosphorus; and is the source of energy and nutrients for the soil microbes. Finally, soil organic matter represents a bigger pool of carbon than terrestrial biomass and atmospheric CO2 combined. My research involves the chemical characterisation of organic matter, and how variations in organic matter chemistry affect soil properties. My approach has been to adapt standard chemistry methodologies, in particular NMR spectroscopy, to a very different purpose. The result is a new perspective on an important material.
