Australia to host 19th World Congress of Soil Science

More than 2000 of the world’s leading experts on soil will converge on Brisbane next month for the 19th World Congress of Soil Science.

Held every four years, the event was last hosted by Australia in 1968. And while soil itself probably hasn't changed all that much since, our understanding of it certainly has.

The theme of this year’s congress is ‘Soil Solutions for a Changing World’ and will feature 400 oral papers, 1200 research posters and a program of free public events spanning areas such as agriculture and food production, climate change and the environment as well as the impact of soil on public health.

Soil research is key to the emerging field of metagenomics, or the collection and observation of naturally occuring genetic material for the purposes of medical and other research. Numerous papers exploring this area will be presented at the congress as part of the ‘Gene expression and proteomics in soil’ sessions.

For instance, Ian Pepper from the University of Arizona will present a paper in which he discusses soil as a potential source of therapeutic treatments for disease, underscored by the fact that some 60 percent of cancer drugs developed between 1984 and 1994 were soil-derived.

Another session will look at the genetic diversity of microbials in Australian soils, while delegates can also learn about the use of microarray technology to investigate soil microbial ecology amongst several other sessions.

The congress is being organised by the Australian Society of Soil Science Inc on behalf of the International Union of Soil Science and is sponsored by the federal and Queensland state governments and the CSIRO.

For more information on the congress visit: http://www.19wcss.org.au/build-your-own-program.php