Meet the teams
Eighteen interdisciplinary teams of WUR students have accepted the Soil Challenge. They will come up with innovative and fresh ideas to make soils healthy again and make a difference in society.
Who are the teams? What is their motivation to participate in the soil challenge and what are their expectations? Below, the student teams introduce themselves.
We believe soil is an important subject for our future: everything starts and ends in the soil
Terra Incognita
Photo: Terra Incognita
Who are we?
Team members
- Tullia Calogiuri
- Petranta Kotorou
- AlbaBofill I Izquierdo
- Varsha Sethuraman
- Ravina
Our drive & expectations
We are a team of 5 members with multidisciplinary education and diverse cultural background. The strength of our team comes from Tullia Calogiuri (Italy) and Alba Bofill Izquierdo (Spain) as soil biology experts, Varsha Sethuraman(India) an expert in climate studies, Petranta Kotorou (Greece) an expert in aquatic ecology and Ravina (India) with an expertise in soil chemistry. We are an enthusiastic group participating in the challenge to try to find a solution towards ensuring food security by assuring soil health. Through this challenge we also wish to expand the horizon of our scientific approach by applying our knowledge and learning new developments.
NÜWA
Photo: NÜWA
Who are we?
Team members
- Qingye Huang
- SifanYang
- LishengJiang
Our drive & expectations
Lisheng: I study landscape architecture in WUR and I realize soil is the essential basis of landscape components. Shaping lands for goods can’t leave healthy soils. And I am keen on the fascinating soil animals especially snail. I want to learn soil knowledge from multidisciplinary fellows as well as various land-users/stakeholders. And reveal the importance of unseen soil for future landscape especially in cities.
Sifan: It is interesting to meet people. I want to know more about what the soil health is and how can we really use the theory into practice.
Qingye: I am upset by how people ignore the fact that soil live on this planet way much longer than we do. We need to considerate, respect and restore soils, and make everybody happy and healthy again. Having the opportunity to meet great people, share thoughts and experiences with soils are the best parts of it. It would be even better if we can really make a difference in protecting the soils.
TERRApists
Photo will follow soon
Who are we?
Team members
- Coleen Carranza
- Ricardo Teixeira da Silva
- Fabio Corradini
Our drive & expectations
We took the challenge because we wanted to contribute in refining the current approaches used to determine healthy soil and in communicating soil health to the general public. We also wanted to challenge ourselves in coming up with innovative and out-of-the box solutions for soil health.
We expect to gain some insights on how soil health should be addressed, in addition to having a broader perspective on the concept of how soil health is view in different sectors of science and society.
Finalist
Soil under pressure
Photo: Soil under pressure
Who are we?
Team members
- Ruben Dümmer
- Thomas Heger
- Smaranda Filip
- Aude Prummel
Our drive & expectations
Our multidisciplinary team is composed of four students; two second year bachelor students (Soil, Water and Atmosphere and International Land and Water Management) and two master students (Plant Sciences specialization Natural Resource Management). We are extremely motivated and driven because we all believe soil is an important subject for our future; everything starts and ends in the soil. Also as this is a challenge, it takes us out of our comfort zone, thinking outside the box, therefore allowing us to stimulate our creativity and enabling us to put our (theoretical) knowledge into practice. By doing so becoming more aware of the problems we are facing and will face in the future.
Soil Bear
Photo: Soil Bear
Who are we?
Team members
- Anandi Sarita Namasivayam
- Lauren Elliot
- Janneke den Dekker
- Yue Huang
Our drive & expectations
We are four MSc students of Environmental Systems Analysis who care a lot about the current global environmental problems and try to participate in making changes. Nowadays, the soil problem is one of the most severe problems worldwide and highly relates to EU Sustainable Development Goals. We are motivated to analyse the soil problemme by defining soil health and giving solutions from our background. Thanks to this Soil Challenge, we have an opportunity to reflect on the problem.
The Soil Toubibs
Photo: The Soil Toubibs
Who are we?
Team members
- Morgane van Dam
- Corentin de Bisot
Our drive & expectations
Corentin is a former student in Physics from Ecole Polytechnique in France, he is in the first year of the MEE master in Wageningen. Morgane has a training of bioengineer from the university of Brussels. Passionate by the soil from a young age, she joined the master program earth and environment this September. “Because applying our knowledge to a real life problem was a motivating task to undertake we joined the challenge. We expect to learn a lot from this challenge and hopefully provide valuable answers that will help maintaining soil healthy. We are also very curious to interact with stakeholders and understand their ‘real life’ relationship with soil.”
Finalist
HupSoilHub!
Photo: HupSoilHub!
Who are we?
Team members
- Mariska Rijk
- Titus Kruijssen
- Klais Blaauw
Our drive & expectations
We are interested in soil, environment and climate and we are convinced that we as soil scientists have a mission to unite and join forces for a future full of healthy soils! We expect a time full of creativity and (online) interaction where we can think about and develop valuable ideas, that can make our vision for the future to a reality!
Finalist
The soil seekers
Photo: The soil seekers
Who are we?
Team members
- Pauline Eichenseer
- Julian Haller
- Philippe Belliard
Our drive & expectations
We joined forces and this challenge, because soil is the basis of humanity. Without healthy soils humankind would not exist for long. We all have the wish to contribute to a better world. We have extensive background knowledge on sustanable soil management in the context of agriculture. We think we can make useful contributions to such a project. We expect this challenge to be fun and useful for implemention of practices that increase or maintain soil health in a wider perspective. We expect the outcomes to form the basis of a new approach by the EU mission of Soil health and Food.
Finalist
Top Soil
Photo: Top Soil
Who are we?
Team members
- Josephine Kooij
- Kirsten Mills
- Larissa Dorrestijn
- Anna Kiers
Our drive & expectations
We are Team Top Soil and we are digging for a solution to make all soils healthy again! You can see our photo above (taken in times of COVID). We are four Master Environmental students in our first year at WUR. Our academic backgrounds - environmental sociology, chemistry, soil science, and sports science - are just as diverse as our national backgrounds. We have dutch, dutch-english, dutch-canadian, and dutch-living abroad backgrounds. The Soil Challenge will enrich our knowledge, hone our skills, and ultimately, provide a sense of fulfillment and pride. We joined the competition to learn more about soils, and their European benefits, and the initiatives that exist in Europe to work towards healthy soils. We expect the competition will broaden our perspective on the matter, as we speak to stakeholders and visit innovative, new places. We are ready to dig-it!
Finalist
EarthWURmission
Photo: EarthWURmission
Who are we?
Team members
- Andrea Rey
- Fang Ning Tan
- Jane Roque
- Jolanthe Miething
Our drive & expectations
Healthy soils are the base for food production and currently included in the discussion for climate change mitigation, at the same time soils are a limited resource that is easily lost due to erosion but takes a very long time to be build. Therefore, soils need to be taken care of to be healthy and provide all the different services for human life. Our group is especially interested in the ecosystem services that these provide, and we want to focus in agricultural soils as they are managed living soils that are also seen to possibly store carbon.
We, as an international team, are looking forward to work with and get advices from professionals and to improve our network. We want to extent our view outside the university and hope to improve our insight in how to transfer scientific knowledge into action.
Digging Consciousness
Photo: Digging Consciousness
Who are we?
Team members
- Bart Vlemmix
- Annika van Duijvenboden
- Veerle Beijer
- Ingeborg Verkleij
Our drive & expectations
We are driven by the bad conditions of many soils in the Netherlands. We also think it is fun and interesting to work with professionals and come to know know more about the European Union. Joining the challenge can be our first step to dig for consciousness about soil health and pull people out of possible damaging routines. Informed and ispired by our bachelors, we would like to explore new options.
We expect to discover new insights on soil health and communication. By following the paths of pioneers and experts of the field we hope to connect theory with reality. We also hope to have fun as a team, follow our interests and learn from each other.