Roland Bol was born in Delft (NL) and completed a Drs. degree in Physical Geography at the University of Amsterdam, before moving to United Kingdom to undertake a PhD in Soil Science at Bangor University (Wales). He did his PostDoc at the NERC Radiocarbon laboratory in East Kilbride (Scotland). He subsequently worked at North Wyke Research and latterly Rothamsted North Wyke (England). Since 2013 he is the research leader for soil organic matter & elemental cycles at the Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany).
He has over 35 years’ experience in academia and research, and his research has predominantly focused on the complex biogeochemistry processes that occur on the landscape scale at soil-water-air interfaces in natural and agricultural ecosystems. His work has contributed to how isotope signatures can be used as tracers of carbon, nutrients, metals and sediments sources and dynamics in the wider soil environment.
Prof. Roland Bol has published over 400 journal papers relating to soil science in the widest sense. He has made a significant contribution to capability development through the supervision of many MSc, Ph.D., Postdoc students and Early career scientists worldwide. He was a council member of the British Soil Science Society from (2002-2004). He enjoys countryside walks, photography, reading and (multi-)cultural events.