Prof. Dr. Balwant Singh did his BSc (Hons) Agr and MSc Agr from Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (India). He completed his PhD in Soil Science in 1991 from The University of Western Australia. He was a Lecturer in Soil Mineralogy in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Reading, UK from 1993 to 1998. Currently he is Associate Professor in Soil Chemistry at the University of Sydney.
Balwant’s research area is in soil chemistry and mineralogy. More specifically research interests include understanding of mineral structure and chemical reactions of minerals in synthetic and natural systems, with an emphasis on heavy metals; and availability and dynamics of potassium in relation to soil mineralogy. He has supervised several postgraduate and honours research projects in soil mineralogy and chemistry.
Balwant is an active member of several professional societies including International Union of Soil Science, Australian Society of Soil Science, British Society of Soil Science, The Clay Mineral Society, American Chemical Society and Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain. He was President and Vice-President of the Australian Soil Science Society Inc, NSW Branch in 2005 and 2002-04. He is a member of Committee EV/9 (contaminated soils) of Standard Australia since 1999.
He is the current chair of the Editorial Advisory Committee of the Australian Journal of Soil Research. Balwant has presented invited and other papers at various national and international conferences. He was a Co-convenor of symposia in Soil Mineralogy Commission of the 17th World Congress of Soil Science held in Bangkok in August 2002 and the 18th World Congress of Soil Science to be held in Philadelphia, USA in July 2006. He chaired Technical and Editorial Committees of the SuperSoil 2004 Conference, the joint conference of Australian and New Zealand Soil Science Societies, held in Sydney in December 2004.