Professor Iain Young

Iain completed his BSc (Hons) at Aberdeen University in 1984, then obtaining a PhD in Soil Physics (1987) in the same institution. He then moved to The Scottish Crop Research Institution (SCRI) as a Research Leader in 1988 - now the James Hutton  Institute. Spending 12 years at SCRI, he became Head of the multidisciplinary Soil-Plant Dynamics group, before moving to Abertay University as the Founding Director and Professor of the Scottish Informatics Mathematics, Biology and Statistics (SIMBIOS) Centre.  During Iain’s tenure at SIMBIOS, the group was assessed as in the top 5 research teams in Environmental science in the UK.

During his tenure at SIMBIOS, Iain was a founding member of the SAGES Alliance, Director of the Dundee  Science Centre, and served on many UK and EU research Council research committees.

In late 2008, Iain moved to Australia to take up his current role as Head of the School of Environmental & Rural Science.  He became President of the Australian Council of Deans of Agriculture and is the current Immediate Past President.  He is the Chair of the National Soil R,D&E Strategy Implementation Committee in Australia, and a member of the National Primary Industries Research & Innovation Committee.  He is a past Board member of Soils for Life, to which he continues to provide advice.  He is one of 4 advisors to the National Soil Advocate. He is a research leader in the CRC-Polymers.

In the past decade Iain has won over $60 M in competitive research and facilities grants.  Iain has published over 150 peer-reviewed publications.  He continues to act as a research assessor for many research organisations across the world.

Iain is a biophysicist working at the interface of physics and biology, using soil as a model system to examine functionality in complex porous media over space and time. His work crosses the boundaries of modelling and experimentation and he is known internationally in these areas, particularly in the functional quantification of the 3D architecture of soil and how the spatio-temporal processes of such complex structures impact on microbial and plant life and vice-versa.