Participants
CSE is organized by professors Hoffland, Van der Putten and Raaijmakers and dr De Kogel.
In total, 15 research groups - from both NIOO and WUR - participate in CSE. An overview of these groups and their links can be found here.
In addition, three senior scientists and two PhD students are directly linked to and partly employed within the Centre for Soil Ecology.
Gerard Korthals is coordinator of CSE. He graduated at the Free University in Amsterdam with a degree in soil ecology, tropical ecology and ecotoxicology. He performed his PhD (Pollutant induced changes in terrestrial nematode communities) at the Agricultural University of Wageningen with Prof. T. Bongers. He continued as a Postdoc on several EU-projects (DEGREE, CLUE, DREAM, EUPHRESCO, SUSTAIN, SNOWMAN, CATCHC). Since 1999 he worked as a senior scientist at Applied Plant Research for arable farming and field production of vegetables (PPO AGV WUR). Here he was responsible for the acquisition, design and daily management of big and complex projects on soil ecology. His special interest lies within shifts in nematode communities for example due to disturbances, climate change, set-aside and other management practices in relation to plants (natural vegetation and crop productivity). Since January 2014 he has been appointed as coordinator of the Centre for Soil Ecology (CSE). For the CSE he is responsible for the acquisition of new projects, outreach of the centre (presentations, articles, organising meetings etc.) and daily contact between customers and funding agencies and the scientific partners of the CSE.