John Ryan

The IUSS is extremely proud to announce that the winner of the 2018 IUSS Liebig Applied Soil Science Award is international soil scientists Dr John Ryan.

Dr John Ryan, a native of Ireland, holds BAgrSc, PhD and DSc degrees from University College Dublin and is a Certified Professional Soil Scientist and is a 45-year member of SSSA. His mainly international career involved research, teaching, administration, leadership, and editorial assignments. Following a Fulbright post-doctoral period at the University of Arizona, where he took an MS in agricultural education, he held professorial positions at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, for 11 years, and 4 years at the University of Nebraska, with USAID/MIAC/INRA (based in Morocco), and 20 years as Senior Scientist at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas in Aleppo, Syria.

His research areas were applied soil chemistry, soil fertility, fertilizer use, plant nutrition, and soil and water management. His main focus was dryland agriculture. He has published extensively and has lectured in many countries. He is a Fellow of ASA, SSSA, and CSSA, and holds the international awards in all three Societies, in addition to the Distinguished Soil Science Award and Honorary Member of IUSS. He is also a Fellow of the American Society for the Advancement of Science, and has received the IFA Crop Nutrition Award, the IPNI Science Award, and the JB Jones Award for services to soil and plant analysis. He served as Commission Chair in IUSS for 8 years and as Chair of International Agronomy in ASA. Though retired in Ireland, he remains active professionally.