I am associate professor at the Soil Fertility and Nutrient Management research group. After graduating as bio-engineer in Land & Forest Management a completed my PhD in agricultural and applied biological sciences on soil C sequestration in cropland, both at Ghent University in 2005. I am since then mainly working on the fate of organic matter (C and N cycling) in soils, from above and belowground plant residues and exogenous organic matter to various soil organic matter fractions. I have a focus on the coupling of soil structure and soil organic matter mineralization, the role of root C in formation of stable SOC, paddy soil biochemistry, greenhouse gas emission from agricultural soils and land-use history effects on organic matter biochemical composition. I combine quantitative approaches (soil fractionation with elemental and isotopic analyses (13C of SOC, CO2 and CH4, and 15N of soil N and N2O), with collaboration based X-ray CT analysis of soil microstructure, microbial community fingerprinting and MS-based SOC biochemical characterization. About half of the research is situated abroad, mostly in Asia (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Vietnam).
