Prof. Dr. Ruben Kretzschmar

Ruben Kretzschmar is Full Professor of Soil Chemistry in the Department of Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich. He earned his Ph.D. degree in 1994 in the Department of Soil Science at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, where he specialized in soil chemistry and mineralogy. He was elected Associate Professor at ETH Zurich in 1999 and Full Professor in 2002. From August 2008 to July 2009 he was a Cox Visiting Professor in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University, CA, USA.

The research of his group is primarily concerned with the biogeochemical behavior and cycling of essential and potentially toxic trace elements in terrestrial and semi-terrestrial systems, and the coupling of these elements to the biogeochemistry of iron, manganese and sulfur. Currently, his group focuses on the biogeochemistry of metals and metalloids in periodically flooded or water-saturated soils, such as contaminated river floodplains and irrigated rice paddies, where plant uptake of cadmium and arsenic pose important problems.

Ruben Kretzschmar has authored or co-authored more than 150 research articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, several review articles and book chapters, and one of the leading textbooks in Soil Science.