Professor Karen Johnson

Professor of Environmental Engineering and SMART Soils project lead

What do you do?

I am a Professor of Environmental Engineering at Durham University. I trained as a hydrogeologist and worked in the water industry before returning to academia. I’ve worked at Durham University since 2005 and my research expertise is in carbon and pollutant sequestration on mineral surfaces and the use of redox active minerals in rebuilding soil health. 

My vision has been and continues to be to raise soil health up the political agenda. working for with both national and international policy-makers.

How are you involved in this area of science? 

I lead the SMART Soils project at Durham University.  SMART, ‘Soil Microbiome Restoration and Augmentation Technologies’, aims to develop sustainable soil improvement technologies that help rebuild degraded soils around the world to hold onto more carbon and water and address climate change mitigation and adaptation.  I established SMART Soils in recognition of the fact that soil is a a living ecosystem, with its microbiome key to its life-giving properties. 

 I won the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin medal in 2023 for promoting the involvement of women in soil and you can see my award lecture here. I am committed to engaging with Gen Z and Alpha with the aim of raising awareness about soil health and encouraging women into engineering.  

 I helped the UK Government’s Environmental Audit Committee to set up the first Inquiry into Soil Health in 2015 and I presented oral evidence at both the first and most recent (2023) Soil Health Inquiries.

What do you love about this topic?

What I love about soil is that it underpins all terrestrial life. It might sound a bit out there (my kids certainly think it's odd) but I actually love touching and smelling soil whenever I can. You can literally smell when it's a healthy soil and touching soil is actively good for our own health. It boosts our immune system and improves mental wellbeing.

The other thing I love about the topic of soil is that it links to so many things, to human health, water storage, carbon storage, biodiversity, transport infrastructure, which means that as an environmental engineer I get to work with many other disciplines. Which I also love doing.  

How does this work deliver real-world impact?

Soil degradation has become a major challenge for the world.  We need good soil for nutritious crops, carbon storage and flood resilience.  Healthy soils could also provide new antibiotics and microbial therapies.  It takes a hundred years to develop a healthy soil naturally and we do not have the luxury of that time. SMART Soils technology could allow us to rebuild soils on much shorted timescales.   

 I am a keen advocate of the one health concept where soil health underpins human and planetary health. Recently, I have worked with African colleagues to look at using soil improvement technologies to address hidden hunger (e.g. zinc deficiencies).