Employment and Education history

• Since 2021 Research Professor Ecosystem Functioning (Full Professor); Head of the Ecotron Ecosystem Functioning research facility, Hasselt University, Belgium 

• 2015-2022 Professor (first Assistant prof, since 2020 Associate prof); Leiden University, The Netherlands. Leader of a research group of above- and belowground biodiversity links (7 scientists)

• 2015-2015 Senior Researcher; Louis Bolk Institute of Agriculture, The Netherlands

• 2013-2014 Senior Lecturer in Ecological Statistics; Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

• 2007-2013 Postdoctoral researcher; coordinator of the FUTURE project, aimed to integrate European and ex-Soviet union ecological research (3 countries, 4 senior scientists, 1 postdoc, 7 PhDs) and mentor of international PhD students; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

PhD degree Moscow State University, Faculty of Biology, April 2006 
MSc degree Bauman Moscow State Technical University (Russia), Faculty of Informatics and Control systems (1998, graduated cum laude in Artificial Intelligence and Modelling)

Awards and Prizes

• 2021: Award by Von Humboldt Foundation – mid-career researcher level; €45.000.

• 2020: Best paper on mycorrhiza, by International Mycorrhizal Society (paper N4 in c.5)

• 2019: Researcher of the Year 2019 Award nomination by Leiden University.

• 2013: A study featured as Faculty of 1000 Prime Recommended (paper N10 in c.5)

• 2013: Best Paper Of The Year Award by Springer Ecological Research
  
  

Research Fellowships and Awards Shaped by Personal Excellence

• 2022-2027 Methusalem Fellowship “Impacts of environmental change on human health and ecosystem functioning” (€400.000) Highly prestigious funding provided by the Flemish government to give stable, long-term structural financial support to internationally renowned researchers

• 2016-2021 “VIDI”, 5-years personal grant intended to build an own research group, issued by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific research, hereafter NWO; €800.000, PI; A highly prestigious Dutch personal grant for talented, creative mid-career researchers

• 2007-2008 “Rubicon”, 1-year postdoc fellowship, issued by NWO; €50.000, PI; A prestigious personal grant for recent PhD graduates to travel abroad or come to NL from abroad (my case)

• 2006-2007 Personal award for an outstanding Russian PhD student, issued by NWO; €15.000, PI
  
  

Summary of Academic Funding obtained during 14 years *after PhD defence
*excluding two maternity leave periods within 2009-2011

• Total research funding obtained personally and within international consortia: €33.880.000

• Personal research funding within the amount above: €2.805.000
  
  

Supervision of young scientists since obtaining a senior academic position in 2013

• 3 Young tenured and tenure-track scientists: current: Dr Rineau, Dr Thijs; past: Dr Akhmetzhanova

• 5 Postdocs: current: Dr. Verdonk; past: Dr. Gomes, Dr. Elumeeva, Dr. Semenova, Dr. Tekeev

• 14 PhD students: current: 8; graduated: 6; 21 Master students: current 3; graduated: 18
  
  

Academic fellowships and awards to my PhD and Msc students

• Ambizione grant by Swiss National Science Foundation to Konstantin Gavasov (CHF 750.000)

• BOF Fellowship for a joint PhD program at Hasselt University to Weilin Huang (€50.000)

• Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation Award at EGU 2021 to Weilin Huang 

• Best PhD thesis of the Year 2018 Award, nomination by Leiden University, to Sofia Gomes

Scientific Management and Project Leadership

Current: head of the Ecotron research facility (14 scientists, including two professors)
Use case leader in the EU-funded PHENET Project (see in the Appendix)
Past: led NWO VIDI project (8); coordinated NWO FUTURE project (12 scientists,).

Involvement in International Research Networks and Scientific Societies

• 2021-current: EU AnaEE ERIC - Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems European Research Infrastructure Consortium; Research coordinator of enclosed climate research facilities in 8 countries

• 2020-current: Author and coordinator of FungalRoot Database (paper N4 in the c5. 10 best papers list), which is the largest and most comprehensive database of mycorrhizal plant-fungal associations;

• 2019-current: EU COST Action CA18237 European Soil-Biology Data Warehouse for Soil Protection (EUdaphobase) - Management Group Member;

• 2014-2018: EU COST Action FP1305 BioLink, Linking belowground biodiversity and ecosystem function in European forests; Lead (last) author of Action’s principal publication (doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2019.00006);

• 2015: Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas (2015) prepared by the EU Joint Research Centre and the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative - acknowledged at the Convention on Biological Diversity COP14, 2018, as the principal contribution to mankind’s knowledge on biodiversity; Co-author;

• 2007-current: Global database of plant functional traits, TRY (https://www.try-db.org/); Data contributor.

Member in scientific societies: Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative, Belgian Microbiology Society, American Geophysical Union, International Mycorrhiza Society.

Institutional Responsibilities

• 2021-current: Scientific coordinator of climate change research at Hasselt University (17 PIs);

• 2015-2019: Institute Council member of the Center of Environmental Sciences of Leiden University (the institute council is a body for employee (168 people) communication with the institute management).

Teaching activities
No undergraduate teaching after 2021 because since then I am a research professor.

• 2015-2021: “Ecosystem services” (MSc course within the Biology program, Leiden University; 30 students; 6 EC), course coordinator and lecturer;

• 2017-2021: “Ecology 1 (Community Ecology)” (BSc course within the Biology program, Leiden University; 70 students; 6 EC), course coordinator and lecturer;

• 2018-2021: “Ecology 2 (Systems Ecology)” (BSc course within the Biology program, Leiden University; 70 students; 3 EC), course coordinator and lecturer;

• 2018-2021: “The material city” (BSc course within the Urban studies program, Leiden University; 70 students; 6 EC), course coordinator and lecturer;

• 2019-2021: “Human impacts on Biodiversity” (MSc course within the Biology program, Leiden University; 30 students; 6 EC), course coordinator;

• 2019:  “MSc orientation” (MSc course within the Biology program, Leiden University; 30 students; 6 EC), course coordinator, sharing coordination with a colleague;

• 2016: “Areal studies/ Indonesia” (BSc course within the Minor “Sustainable Development” program, Leiden University; 15 students; 6 EC), course coordinator and lecturer;

• 2013-2014:  “Data collecting, visualising, analysing” (BSc course on basic statistics within the Future Planet Studies program, at the University of Amsterdam; 150 students; 6 EC), course coordinator and lecturer;

• 2013-2014:  “From Analysis to Evidence”, (BSc course on intermediate statistics within the Future Planet Studies program, at the University of Amsterdam; 45 students; 6 EC), course coordinator and lecturer;

• 2013-2014: “Programming and Data Analysis”, (BSc course within the Future Planet Studies program, at the University of Amsterdam; 40 students; 6 EC), coordinator and lecturer of the ‘Data Analysis’ module of the course;

• 2013-2014: “Measurement Strategies” (BSc course within the Future Planet Studies program,at the University of Amsterdam; 40 students; 6 EC), coordinator and lecturer of the ‘Statistics’ module of the course;

• 2009-2013: "Statistics and Experimental Design" (MSc/PhD course at the VU University Amsterdam; 40 students; 6 EC), lecturer;

• 2008-2013: "People and Environment" (BSc course at VU University Amsterdam; 250 students; 6 EC), instructor;
  
  

Academic Training of Young Scientists (PhD/Msc and Postdoc Courses)

• 2015-current: “Young Soil Scientist” cross-university (Leiden Univ. NL and Hasselt Univ. BE) scientific discussion platform, aiding academic skills training for young scientists engaged in soil ecology

• 2011-2013: “Nature of Life” Research seminar for PhD and MSc students (VU-Univ. Amsterdam; coordinator)

• 2008-2013: “Statistics Lovers” stat. methods seminar for PhD students (VU-Univ. Amsterdam; coordinator)

Organization of Scientific Meetings

• World Biodiversity Forum, Davos 2022 (organizer session: “Climate change impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: Lessons learned from climate change manipulation experiments”)

• NAEM – Annual Netherlands Ecological Society meeting; meetings organizer in 2013-2017

• 125 Anniversary IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) meeting, Freiburg 2017 (organizer session: “Forest rhizosphere ecology and biogeochemistry across environmental gradients”)

• 2nd Global Soil Biodiversity Conference, Nanjing 2017 (round table organizer: “Linking soil biodiversity to ecosystem functioning and provisioning of ecosystem services”)

Review Panels for Proposals, Prizes, Faculty Position Applications: 17 in total;
Examples: Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation - reviewer prize nominations and fellowship applications since 2022 3 reviews; Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) - Member of proposal review panel, since 2023; European Commission Horizon2020 INFRARIA/INFRADEV grant calls - review panel member (2019 - 13 projects) evaluated); Review panel NWO VENI (VENI is a postdoc grant to outstanding scientists (2018 - 22 projects)
Reviewer in Scientific Journals top in my research field: Nature, Nature Ecology and Evotution, Nature Communications, Nature Global Change, Ecology Letters, PNAS, Global Ecology and Biogeography, New Phytologist, Ecology, Functional Ecology, Biogeosciences; I do ca. 10 reviews per year, among which 35% for Nature family journals.

Major Collaborations
Petr Baldrian - belowground biodiversity; Czech Academy of Science; Peter van Bodegom - global analyses of biodiversity; Leiden University, The Netherlands; Pål Axel Olsson - belowground biodiversity; Lund University, Sweden; Leho Tedersoo - global distribution of mycorrhizal fungi; Tartu University, Estonia; Stephan Declerck - ecophysiology of mycorrhizal fungi; Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium