Prof. Rattan Lal
Rattan Lal, Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and Founding Director of the Lal Carbon Center at The Ohio State University ; an Honorary Professor at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Srinagar, National University of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Punjab Agricultural University , Ludhiana, and Pusa Institute in New Delhi. Dr. Lal pioneered the soil-centric agricultural management and for transforming agriculture as a solution to improving food/ nutrition security, climate-resilient agriculture, soil carbon sequestration, eco-intensification, enhancing use efficiency of agroecosystems, sustainable management of soils, and advancing SDGs of the Agenda 2030 of the U.N..
Born on September 5th, 1944, in West Punjab, British India, Rattan Lal completed High School from Rajound ( Haryana), BSc from PAU , Ludhiana (1963), MSc from Pusa Institute, New Delhi (1965), and PhD from OSU, Columbus (1968). He was Sr. Research Fellow with the University of Sydney, Australia (1968-69), Soil Physicist at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria (1969-87), and Professor of Soil Science at OSU (1987-to date). He was a gold medalist at PAU (1963) and IARI (1965).
Prof. Lal is a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy (1985), Soil Science Society of America(SSSA) (1986), Third World Academy of Sciences (1992), American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (1996), Soil and Water Conservation Society (1997), Indian Natl. Academy of Agricultural Sciences (1998), Rothamsted, U.K. (2013). He received the Hugh Hammond Bennett Award of the SWCS (2005), Borlaug Award from Coromandel International Ltd. India(2005), Liebig Award of International Union of Soil Sciences ( IUUS,2006), M.S. Swaminathan Award from the TAAS ,India (2009), COMLAND Award in Germany (2009), and the Sustained Achievement Award from the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation (2017). He received the Medal of Honor from UIMP, Santander, Spain (2018); the Distinguished Service Award from the IUSS in Rio, Brazil (2018); and the Alumni Medalist Award (2019) and 422nd Commencement Medal (2019) from OSU, Columbus, Ohio, USA. He was President of the World Association of the Soil and Water Conservation (1987-1990), the International Soil Tillage Research Organization (1988-91), the SSSA (2005-2007), and the International Union of Soil Sciences, Vienna, Austria (2017-18). He was member of the U.S.Federal Advisory Committee on National Assessment of Climate Change-NCADAC (2010-2014); Senior Science Advisor to the Global Soil Forum of IASS, Potsdam, Germany (2010-2012); member Steering Committee of the Global Soil Week, IASS, Potsdam, Germany (2012-2016); member Advisory Board of FACCE-JPI of the European Council (2013-2016); Chair Advisory Committee to UNU-FLORES, Dresden, Germany (2013-2019); member of the Science/Policy Interphase (SPI) of UNCCD, Bonn, Germany (2018-2022); member U.N. Food Systems Summit Science Committee and Action Track 3 (UNFSS) (2021) and Co-Chair of the Global Future Council of Soil Science ( 2023-). Prof. Lal holds Chair in Soil Science and Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Issues of the IICA, Costa Rica (2020-). He was member and Chair of SERDP Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. Department of Defense (2011-2018; 2023-2024), and appointed member to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development by President Joe Biden (2022-2025).
He received honorary degrees of DSc from PAU, India (2001); the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway (2005); Alecu Russo Balti State University, Moldova (2010); Technical University of Dresden, Germany (2015); University of Lleida, Spain (2017); Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota (2018); Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso, Chile (2019); Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India (2020); and IARI, New Delhi, India (2021).
He is ranked globally #1 by Research.com (2023, 2024), and #1 in Agronomy and Agriculture by Stanford’s Ioannidis (2019, 2020, 2021). Clarivate/Thomson Reuters listed Dr. Lal among World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds (2014-2016) and the Highly Cited Researchers (2014-2023). He was in The Reuters Hot List of the world’s top climate scholars (2020-2021) with a Google Scholar h-index of 209. The 2024 ScholarGPS ranked Dr. Lal among top 0.05 % of all scholars world-wide, and globally ranked him #1 in natural resources, carbon sequestration, land degradation, natural environment, soil carbon, soil conservation and sustainable management.; and globally #2 in agriculture and natural resources, crop residue management, crop yield, food security and soil erosion.
He mentored 430 professionals from 60 countries including 154 graduate students, 82 postdoctoral research scientists, and 190 visiting scholars. He authored/co-authored 3000 research publications, including 1200 journal articles, 600 book chapters, 24 books and edited/co-edited 86 books. He has visited 103 countries, organized 40 international conferences in 17 countries/regions, and has made 1070 invited keynote presentations.
Professor Lal was awarded Nobel Peace Prize Certificate by the IPCC in 2007, as well as Global Dryland Champion of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification, Bonn, Germany (2013). Professor Lal is laureate of the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity (2024), Mahatma Ghandi Award for Environmental Protection (2022), Padma Shri Award of India (2021), World Food Prize (2020), Arrell Global Food Innovation Award (2020), Japan Prize (2019), U.S. Awasthi IFFCO Prize (2019), GCHERA World Agriculture Prize (2018), and Glinka World Soil Prize (2018). He has donated all the award money (US$1.4 M) to OSU in support of The Rattan Lal Endowed Professorship, and The Rattan Lal Scholar Exchange Program for universities in. India.