Dr Lukas Van Zwieten
Senior Principal Research Scientist, Soils - NSW DPI

Lukas is Director of Wollongbar Primary Industries Institute and is a Program Leader (Program 4- Integrated Solutions) for the Soils Cooperative Research Centre having been involved from the very beginning of this $160M 10-year investment in soils as part of the committee preparing the original bid.

Lukas' research focuses on processes in the soil including C and N cycling, understanding mechanisms and developing technologies for storing Soil Organic Carbon, and how these relate to greenhouse gas emissions. He's also investigated how  unravelling microbial and chemical processes in the rhizosphere may enable the development of novel fertilisers and amendments to address soil constraints and build soil C.

​Lukas has been a Highly Cited Researcher (Web of Science) in the cross-field category for three consecutive years - 2018, 2019 and 2020, being in the top 1% internationally. He has over 160 refereed journal papers and has a Scholar H-score of 52 and is a Churchill Fellow. In 2016 Lukas received the NSW Premiers Award “Public Sector Science and Engineering,”
Lukas' research on biochar was acclaimed in the 2007 United Nations’ World Environment Day Award “Meeting the Greenhouse Challenge,” and it has been popularised through the Australian Broadcasting Corporations Catalyst program (2007), a CNN “special report” in 2008, ABC’s Landline (2009) and Discovery Channels “Ecopolis” mini series in 2009/10.

NSW DPI technical officer, Josh Rust ((left) and research scientist, Dr Lukas Van Zwieten (right) inspect a biochar soil amendment trial at the DPI Wollongbar Primary Industries Institute.