Dawit Solomon
Dr. Dawit Solomon holds a PhD in Geoecology/Soil Sciences from the University of Bayreuth in Germany, He has also a parallel post-doctoral training in biogeochemistry, biogeochemical cycling, environmental sciences and sustainable agriculture, from the University of Bayreuth and Cornell University in the USA. He has over 20 years of combined expertise in capacity building, research, international project development, implementation and engagement experience in sustainable agriculture, integrated environment and ecosystem rehabilitation and management, food and nutrition security, climate-change mitigation, adaptation and resilience working with diverse partners and stakeholders including farmers, government policy makers and international development partners in Africa, Europe, South and North America.
Dr. Dawit Solomon is East Africa Program Leader of CGIAR’s Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), and staff member of the International Livestock Research Center (ILRI). Before Joining CCAFS, he was a Senior Research Associate and a Research Fellow at Atkinson Center for Sustainable Future, Cornell University from 2008 – 2017; where he was actively working in basic and applied sciences research in the areas of multi-element micro and nano-scale functional group biogeochemistry and carbon sequestration in temperate, sub-tropical and tropical ecosystems using archived samples and long-term chronosequences, sustainable agriculture, environment, food and nutrition security and climate change. He has also worked as a Research Scientist at various international agriculture, environment, and ecology projects in forest, grassland and agricultural systems in Eastern and Western Africa, Central Asia, the Brazilian Amazon, and in the Great Plains of North America between 2004 - 2008 and prior to that, he worked as lecturer and also head of soil sciences. His interests spans from cross-cutting, and cross-scale (from landscape to nano-level) regional and global biogeochemistry, carbon sequestration, soil fertility, agriculture, sustainable land management, environment, ecology, climate-smart food and nutrition security and climate change-related themes to developing institutional capacity, partnerships and engagement with research, institutions of higher learning, private sector industry, government and international institutions.
Selected publications:
Ahmed Z, Woodbury P, Sanderman J, Hawke B, Verena J, Solomon D, Lehman J. 2017. Assessing soil carbon vulnerability in the Western USA by geospatial modeling of pyrogenic and particulate carbon stocks, Journal of Geophysical Research, 122, 354–369, doi:10.1002/2016JG003488.
Woolf D, Solomon D, Lehmann L. 2017. Social safety nets can also provide climate change mitigation: lessons from Ethiopia’s food-security program. Environmental Science and Policy. Submitted for publication.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Fraser J, Leach M, Amanor K, Frausin V, Kristiansen M, Millimouno D, Fairhead J. 2016. Indigenous African soil enrichment as climate-smart sustainable agriculture alternative. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 14: 71–76.
Solomon D, Woolf D, Jirka S, De’Gloria S, Belay B, Ambaw G, Getahun K, Ahmed Z, Lehmann L. 2016. Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP): Soil carbon and fertility impact assessment. A World Bank Climate Smart Initiative (CSI) Report. Cornell University. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/41301
Turner B L, Condron L M, France C A M, Lehmann J, Solomon D, Peltzer D, Richardson S J. 2016. Sulfur dynamics during long-term ecosystem development. Biogeochemitry. DOI 10.1007/s10533-016-0208-6.
Jirka S, Woolf D, Solomon D, Lehmann J. 2015. Climate finance and carbon markets for Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP): Executive Summary for Policymakers. A World Bank Climate Smart Initiative (CSI) Report. Cornell University. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/41302
Zwetsloot M, Lehmann J, Solomon D. 2015. Recycling slaughterhouse waste into fertilizer: how do pyrolysis temperature and biomass additions affect phosphorus chemistry in bone char? Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 95: 281-288.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Knoth de Zarruk K, Dathe J, Kinyangi J, Liang B, Machado S. 2011. Speciation and long- and short-term molecular-level dynamics of soil organic sulfur studied by X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy. Journal of Environmental Quality, 40:704-718.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Kinyangi J, Liang B, Hanley K, Heymann K, Wirick S Jacobsen C. 2009. Carbon (1s) NEXAFS spectroscopy of biogeochemically relevant organic reference compounds. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 73:1817-1830.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Kinyangi J, Pell A, Riha S, Theis J, Solomon N, Amelung A, Lobe I, Machado S, Janzen H. 2009. Anthropogenic and climate influences on biogeochemical dynamics and molecular-level speciation of soil sulfur. Ecological Applications, 19: 989-1002.
Simons A, Solomon D, Chibssa W, Blalock G, Lehmann J. 2014. Filling the phosphorus fertilizer gap in poor countries. Nature Geoscience, 7:3 doi:101038/ngeo2049.
Liang B, Wang C H, Solomon D, Kinyangi J, Luizao F, Wirick S, Skjemstad J, Lehmann J. 2013. Oxidation is key for black carbon surface functionality and nutrient retention in Amazon Anthrosols. British Journal of Environmental and Climate Change, 3: 9-23.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Harden J, Wang J, Kinyangi J, Heymann K, Karunakaran C, Lu Y, Wirick S, Jacobsen C. 2012. Micro- and nano-environments of carbon sequestration: Multi-element STXM-NEXAFS spectromicroscopy assessment of microbial carbon and mineral associations. Chemical Geology, 329:53–73.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Knoth de Zarruk K, Dathe J, Kinyangi J, Liang B, Machado S. 2011. Speciation and long- and short-term molecular-level dynamics of soil organic sulfur studied by X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy. Journal of Environmental Quality, 40:704-718.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Kinyangi J, Pell A, Riha S, Theis J, Solomon N, Amelung A, Lobe I, Machado S, Janzen H. 2009. Anthropogenic and climate influences on biogeochemical dynamics and molecular-level speciation of soil sulfur. Ecological Applications, 19: 989-1002.
Lehmann J, Solomon D, Kinyangi J, Dathe L, Wirick S, Jacobson C. 2008. Spatial Complexity of Soil Organic Matter Forms at Nanometer Scales. Nature Geoscience, 1: 238-242.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Thies J, Liang B, Kinyangi J, Skjemstad J O, Luizão F J, Petersen J, Neves E G, SchäferT. 2007. Molecular Signature of Organic C in Black C-rich Amazonian Dark Earth. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 71:2285-2298.
Solomon D, Lehmann J, Kinyangi J, Amelung W, Lobe I, Ngoze S, Riha S, Pell A, Verchot L, Mbugua D, Skjemstad J, Schäfer T. 2007. Long-term Impacts of Anthropogenic Perturbations on the Dynamics and Speciation of Organic Carbon in Tropical Forest and Subtropical Grassland Ecosystems. Global Change Biology, 13: 511-530.
Lehmann J, Kinyangi J Solomon D. 2007. Organic Matter Stabilization in Soil Microaggregates: Implications from Spatial Heterogeneity of Organic Carbon Contents and Carbon Forms. Biogeochemistry, 85: 45-57.