Recipients of 2022 VZJ Editor's Citation for Excellence named

The Vadose Zone Journal editorial board has selected four individuals for recognition for excellence in performing their work as associate editors. The recognition is based on their efforts in establishing a quality review process—for timely and professional manuscript editing, for fair and rigorous integration of reviewer comments, and for overall excellence in managing a professional review process. The editorial board has also chosen four individuals for the Editor’s Citation for Excellence in Review. Members of the VZJ Editorial Board want to express their deepest appreciation for these associate editors and volunteer reviewers, who have benefited our journal, our community, and our sciences through their outstanding work.


Recipients of 2022 VZJ Editor's Citation for Excellence named
The Vadose Zone Journal editorial board has selected four individuals for recognition for excellence in performing their work as associate editors. The recognition is based on their efforts in establishing a quality review process-for timely and professional manuscript editing, for fair and rigorous integration of reviewer comments, and for overall excellence in managing a professional review process. The editorial board has also chosen four individuals for the Editor's Citation for Excellence in Review. Members of the VZJ Editorial Board want to express their deepest appreciation for these associate editors and volunteer reviewers, who have benefited our journal, our community, and our sciences through their outstanding work.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR EXCELLENCE AWARD Emmanuel Arthur
Emmanuel Arthur is a Senior Researcher at the department of Agroecology, Aarhus University (Denmark). He holds MSc and PhD degrees in Physical Land Resources and Soil Science from Ghent University (Belgium) and Aarhus University, respectively. Emmanuel has expertise in the retention and flow of water and air through soils, including measurement and modelling techniques. His contributions to soil science have focused on the understanding of water vapour sorption mechanisms in soils, and the development of models that utilize hygroscopic water content as a predictor of difficultto-measure soil properties (clay content, surface area, CEC, Atterberg limits, etc.). Currently, his research focuses on investigations into mechanisms and controls of soil compaction recovery in long-term experiments across Europe.
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Josh Heitman
Josh Heitman is a Professor in the Crop and Soil Sciences Department at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. He received his BS and MS degrees from Kansas State University and his Ph.D. from Iowa State University. His research probes near-surface soil physical properties and processes with an emphasis on understanding fundamental relationships between soil thermal, electrical, and hydraulic properties, as well as urban land use and agricultural productivity. He is active in both graduate and undergraduate education, teaching at both levels, advising graduate students, and leading a soils-focused summerintensive research experience for undergraduates program at NCSU.

Steffen Schlüter
Steffen Schlüter received his PhD in Geosciences from the Martin-Luther-University Halle Wittenberg. He has worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Oregon State University and Australian National University with a Feodor-Lynen scholarship from the Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation. He is currently a senior scientist at the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ and head of the research group on soil structure and soil functions. His current research interests include X-ray tomography, 3D image analysis, and the relationship between soil structure and a variety of soil functions including carbon stabilization, water flow, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Jean Caron
Jean Caron has been Professor of Soil Physics in the Department of Soils and Agri-Food Engineering, Laval University, since 1992. He obtained a BSc in Agronomy (1983), a MSc in Soil Science in 1987 from Université Laval and a PhD in soil physics from the University of Guelph in 1991. He has published more than 150 scientific articles and book chapters on organic and mineral soils and their physical and hydraulic characteristics, led a chair in precision irrigation (2010 to 2016), and has received more than 42 individual or team awards including the Lionel Boulet National Assembly Award (2018) for the commercial spin-offs of his research and a Fellow title (2020) of the Soil Science Society of America for his scientific contributions. He currently leads the Industrial Chair in Conservation and Restoration of Organic Soils (2018-2023).

Steve Evett
Steve Evett is a Research Soil Scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service at Bushland, Texas, on the Southern High Plains. He and his teammates study aspects of the soilplant-atmosphere continuum related to plant growth, yield, and water use under irrigated and dryland conditions. To further this research, he has studied and co-invented soil water and plant canopy sensors, and with his team has devised ways to use these sensors in automated irrigation systems. He manages team work to study crop evapotranspiration using four large, precision weighing lysimeters. Internationally he is involved in evapotranspiration, water resource development and management, rangeland rehabilitation, and irrigation management efforts in the Middle East, Central Asia, and elsewhere.

Yingxue Yu
Yingxue Yu is currently a postdoc in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences at Washington State University. She is located at the Puyallup Research and Extension Center in western Washington. Yingxue has a BS in hydrology and water resources from Shandong University of Science and Technology and an M.S. in hydrogeology from China University of Geosciences. She has recently completed her PhD in soil science with emphasis on soil physics and vadose zone hydrology. Her research focuses on fate and transport of micro-and nanoparticles in the terrestrial environment. Recently, she has been studying the environmental impacts of plastic pollution on terrestrial ecosystems, specifically how micro-and nanoplastics affect soil ecosystem functioning.

Linfeng Fan
Dr. Linfeng Fan is currently a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology. He will join the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, as a professor in May 2023. He obtained his PhD degree in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich (Switzerland). His research interests include: (1) Hydrology and water resources; (2) Soil mechanics and landslide triggering mechanisms; and (3) Permafrost degradation and associated environmental impacts (e.g., Greenhouse Gas emission). He aims to improve the understanding of the water, mass, and energy fluxes in the Earth's surface (particularly in the Tibet-Himalaya region) and their relevance to human society.

Maik Lucas
Maik Lucas is a postdoc at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research -UFZ in Halle, Germany. After graduating from the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology in 2014 with a bachelor degree in geoecology he moved to Halle, where he gained his Master degree at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in 2016. From 2016, Maik worked at the UFZ in the working group of Doris Vetterlein, studying soil structure dynamics induced by plant roots. He received his PhD in 2020 and moved to Michigan, USA to work as a postdoc in the lab of Alexandra (Sacha) Kravchenko at the Michigan State University. There, his research focused on studying the effect of plantinduced pore structural changes on CN processes and related greenhouse gas fluxes. In 2022, Maik returned to the UFZ and started a postdoctoral position targeting the relationship between pore structure and denitrification processes.