Rattan Lal

Rattan Lal, Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and Director of the CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration at The Ohio State University (OSU). Dr Lal is Adjunct Professor of the University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland, and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), India; and a Visiting Professor at Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso (PUCV), Chile. Dr. Lal 's research has been focused on soil-centric agricultural management to improve food security globally and develop climate-resilient agriculture through soil carbon management and sequestration, sustainable management of soils, and soil health. Prof. Rattan. Lal served as President of the World Association of the Soil and Water Conservation (1987-1990), the International Soil Tillage Research Organization (1988-91), the Soil Science Society of America (2005-2007), and the International Union of Soil Sciences, Vienna, Austria (2017-18). He was a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on National Assessment of Climate Change-NCADAC (2010-2014); and SERDP Scientific Advisory Board of the Department of Defense (2011-2018) and Chair of SAB-SERDP for 2023-2024.. Dr. Lal was Chair of the Advisory Committee to UNU-FLORES, Dresden, Germany (2013-2019); member of the Science -Policy Interphase of UNCCD, Bonn, Germany (2018-2022), and member of the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 for the Science Committee and Action Track 3. He is a member of the Coordination Hub of the U.N.Food System Committee(2023-). He is Chair in Soil Science and Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Issues of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Costa Rica, San José (2020-). Professor Lal is laureate of the World Food Prize (2020), Arrell Global Food Innovation Prize, University of Guelph, Canada (2020), Japan Prize, Tokyo, Japan (2019), , GCHERA World Agriculture Prize (2018), Glinka World Soil Prize, Rome, Italy (2018),and the Padma Shri Award of India ,New Delhi, India (2021).He has received 9 honorary degrees of Doctor of Science from countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.2023 Global Ranking by Research.com ranked Prof. Lal #1 in the world and in the U.S. in plant sciences and agronomy. Rattan Lal has mentored 120 graduate students, 170 visiting scholars, 60 postdoctoral researchers, and 25 research scientists and researchers. He has authored/coauthored more than 1100 peer reviewed articles and co-authored/co-edited more than 100 books.