This article originally appeared in CFAES Monthly, April 2017

Rattan Lal, professor of soil science in the School of Environment and Natural Resources and director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at The Ohio State University, was honored with the Elsevier Atlas award March 31, for his journal article “Food Security in a Changing Climate,"  published in the “Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology" journal in April 2013.

“The health of soil, plants, animals, people, and ecosystems is one and indivisible,” Lal said in an interview with Elsevier Atlas. “Healthier soil creates healthier people. That’s especially true for micronutrient deficiency. If the soil is deficient, then the plants grown in it are deficient and the food consumed by people is deficient. Therefore landscape management for conserving and sustaining soil resources is essential.”

Elsevier, one of the world’s major publishers of scientific, medical and technology information, uses the Atlas awards to showcase research that can have or has had a significant impact on people’s lives around the world, said Virginia Prada-Lopez, representing the organization.

“He’s a rock star in the science community and uses science to address contemporary problems,” said Jeff Sharp, Director, School of Environment and Natural Resources in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, at the event recognizing Lal. “He’s had his hands in the soil in a lot of places in the world.”