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Donald Sparks

Donald L. Sparks is an American soil scientist and is currently Unidel S. Hallock duPont Chair of Soil and Environmental Chemistry, Francis Alison Professor, and Director, Delaware Environmental Institute, University of Delaware.

He is internationally recognized for his research in the kinetics of soil chemical processes, surface chemistry of soils and soil components using in-situ spectroscopic and microscopic techniques and the physical chemistry of soil potassium. His discoveries on the formation and role of surface precipitates in the retention, fate and transport of metals in natural systems have received worldwide attention and had major impacts in the areas of sorption models, metal speciation and soil remediation/contamination. He is the author, coauthor, or editor, of 367 publications, including three textbooks.

He joined the University of Delaware in 1979, and served as Chair, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. In 1986 he served as a Visiting Professor at the University of California in Riverside and in 2005 at INRA in Aix-en-Provence, France. In 2006, he was appointed as Director of the Center for Critical Zone Research. In 2009, he was appointed Director of the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN), a statewide institute housed at the University of Delaware that integrates environmental science, engineering, and policy.

Donald Sparks has received more than 40 awards and honors for research, teaching and leadership,including the Alison Award, the highest competitive faculty award at the University of Delaware, the Geochemistry Medal from the American Chemical Society, the Liebig Medal from the International Union of Soil Sciences, the McMaster Fellowship from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Einstein Professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Pioneer in Clay Science Award from the Clay Minerals Society. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geochemical Society and European Association of Geochemists, the American Society of Agronomy, and the Soil Science Society of America. He has served as advisor and mentor to 100 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. He was President of the Soil Science Society of America and the International Union of Soil Sciences.

He received a B.S. in Agronomy in 1975 and an M.S. in 1976 from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in Soil Science in 1979 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia.

Publications

A complete list of publications can be found online at the University of Delaware Environmental Soil Chemistry Laboratory website.