Contact Professor Guy Kirk
- Tel: +44 (0) 1234 758068
- Email: g.kirk@cranfield.ac.uk
Areas of expertise
- Natural Capital
- Soil
Background
Guy Kirk joined Cranfield in February 2003. Before that he spent 13 years at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, initially as Soil Chemist and later as Head of the Soil and Water Sciences Division. Before IRRI he did doctoral and post-doctoral research in the Soil Science Laboratory, University of Oxford, and between IRRI and Cranfield he was on sabbatical in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. He is Associate Editor of European Journal of Soil Science, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Current activities
Professor Kirk's research focuses on physical, chemical and biological processes in soils; how to quantify soil properties and functions; and how to model soil systems at scales from the microbial to the continental.
Current/recent projects include:
Mechanisms and genetics of iron toxicity tolerance in African rice. Funded by BBSRC-GCRF
Metal contamination of rice supplies in Asia. Funded by BBSRC-GCRF
Rice germplasm for high grain Zn content and tolerance of Zn deficient soils. Funded by BBSRC, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and DfID
Long-lived radionuclides in the surface environment. Funded by NERC
A field laboratory for measuring whole-soil carbon balances and greenhouse gas fluxes under controlled temperature and moisture. Funded by Royal Society/Wolfson Foundation
CarboExtreme - The terrestrial carbon cycle under climate variability and extremes - a pan-European synthesis. Funded by EU-FP7
An improved empirical model of soil carbon dynamics in temperate ecosystems. Funded by NERC
Clients
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Foreign & Commonwealth Development Office
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
- British Geological Survey
