Daniel L. Evans

SSS Soil System Sciences

The 2024 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Daniel L. Evans for outstanding research in the field of exploration of urban soil ecosystem services.

Daniel Evans’s research contributed remarkably to our understanding of soil lifespans and threats to soils by providing first isotopic measurements of soil formation rates in arable contexts, and the first globally relevant estimates of soil lifespans. He also champions the importance of urban soils, by including an exploration of urban soil ecosystem services within the Global Food Security Programme’s Rurban Revolution project, and a number of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) supported projects on manufactured soils for urban green infrastructure. Beyond academia Evans is highly dedicated to outreach and dissemination of soil science, including writing articles for The Guardian, Our World in Data, and The Conversation, and has been invited to talk at venues including the Welsh Government and TEDx, as well as appearing on national and international TV and radio, including BBC Radio 4 and Sky News. From the start of his PhD, Evans has taken a leading role in the soil research community and worked to build a stronger and more engaged community of early career soil scientists. He chaired the Early Careers Committee of the British Society of Soil Science from 2017 to 2020. He is an active member of the Soil System Sciences (SSS) Division Early Career Scientists team, first as co-representative, and again in 2022 as representative. He is now the Union-Level deputy Early Career Scientist Representative for EGU. Beyond early career activities he also remains actively engaged in several international collaborations.