Support for the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS): Activities of the President

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Dr. Donald Sparks, University of Delaware, will serve as President of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS). In this capacity he chairs the IUSS Bureau (the collective name for the IUSS Officers); has oversight of the management of IUSS, including its scientific activities and budget; prepares business for and presides at all Bureau and Council meetings; assists in dissemination of information and publications to members; represents IUSS at various scientific and policy meetings around the world; represents IUSS at the NAS/NRC U.S. Committee on Soil Science meetings; and is the IUSS representative to ICSU. Dr. Sparks will, in particular, provide leadership for the planning, preparations, and convening of the 18th World Congress of Soil Science (WCSS) in July, 2006, in Philadelphia. The IUSS and its Congress will contribute to improved international exchange of information and international coordination for soil sciences research that looks at the biological, geophysical, and geochemical processes in the soil. These processes influence soil and water conservation, soil quality, land degradation, food sufficiency and safety, global carrying capacity, global climatic change, and wetlands protection. The IUSS and its members are interested in and involved in a multitude of research initiatives that are of national and international significance and are directly related to existing and emerging research thrusts. These include key areas as liquid, gas and biologic transport; geobiology; trace gas fluxes; soil microbial ecology; carbon sequestration; molecular environmental science applications to elucidate biogeochemical cycling, speciation, transport and fate of ions, chemicals, and microbes through porous media; surface chemistry in relation to microbe-chemical interactions; vadose zone hydrology; and spatial scaling from molecular to global environments.