2025 Sandy Soils Speakers

Edyta Hewelke
Edyta Hewelke is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Environmental Engineering at Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland. The main scientific area of interest concerns environmental protection and engineering issues.
Her scientific research focuses on the sustainable management of natural resources, including the physical properties of soils, soil protection, sustainable use of soils, and nature-based solutions to improve the quality of the soil environment of the climatic and anthropogenic environmental threats. The issues of her research work concern the following areas: hydrophobic properties of soils, functions of pedotransfers as indirect methods of determining the retention characteristics of soils, improvement of research methods for hydro-physical properties of soils, fires as a threat to the balance of environmental processes, possibilities of carbon sequestration in agricultural soils in the era of changing climate. She implements educational issues for sustainable development and environmental management.

Ekrem Ozlu
Dr Ekrem Ozlu is an assistant professor and extension soil management specialist at Vernon G James Center and Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, North Carolina State University. Dr. Ozlu completed his B.S. in Soil Science in the Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Ataturk University, Erzurum, Turkey. He completed his M.S. in Applied Soil Physics in the Department of Plant Sciences, South Dakota State University. He received his Ph.D. in Soil Physics and Management in Department of Soil Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He worked for two years as postdoctoral research associate at Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University. Dr. Ozlu’s expertise on soil health, soil organic matter, and saltwater intrusion. Dr. Ozlu specifically work on tillage managements, cover cropping, and cropping systems decisions.