Lumen Waite 100 - Flipbook - Page 43
There’s a magical world beneath our feet. Academics
and scientists at Waite are working tirelessly to
help improve soil health across the nation.
Soil researcher Dr Ehsan Tavakkoli has a
serious case of job satisfaction.
The Senior Mortlock Fellow at the University of Adelaide’s School of Agriculture,
Food and Wine spends his days researching
the interactions between carbon and nutrient
geochemistry in agricultural systems. Ehsan
was born in Iran and moved to Australia
in 2005 to continue his studies. After completing his Master of Science in Agriculture
at the University of New England in New
South Wales, he moved to Adelaide in 2007
to pursue his PhD at Waite.
“I was lucky to be funded by the Grains
Research and Development Cooperation
(GRDC) for a scholarship,” he says. “Working at Waite campus is not a nine-to-five job.
It’s all about passion.”
Ehsan has plenty of passion. Anyone working in soil research does. They have the potential to change the world we live in, and it is
a responsibility they take seriously.
“We are sitting in one of the most influential locations in the world,” Ehsan says, as he
settles in for a chat at Waite’s Beltana Café. “It
has produced so much practical knowledge
towards advancement of agriculture and environmental and food production. The campus
includes the School of Agriculture, Food and
Wine’s co-located partners, such as CSIRO,
SARDI, the Australian Wine Research Institute, and plant phenomic facilities.
“Over the past 100 years, they have collectively made significant contributions towards
improving the productivity and sustainability
of agriculture in Australia – and globally.”
Ben Sparrow and Nikki FrancisMartin lead a TERN training
activity describing soil properties
including colour and texture.
LUMEN
WORDS › KATIE SPAIN | PICTURES › UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE AND NICOLAS RAKOTOPARE
Magic dirt
