Owen Duckworth

Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry

Center for Integrated Fungal Research
Department of Crop and Soil Science
3208 Williams Hall, 101 Derieux Street
Campus Box 7619
Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7619, USA
http://duckworth.soil.ncsu.edu/
Phone: (919) 513-1577
Fax: (919) 515-2167

Biography

B.S., Chemistry and Geology, College of William and Mary, 1997
M.S., Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2000
Ph.D., Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University
Postdoctoral Scholar, Division of Ecosystem Sciences, University of California, Berkeley

Research

The Duckworth Soil Biogeochemistry Laboratory has broad research interests concerning the interactions between organisms, metals, and mineral surfaces. Understanding these processes at the fundamental level is critical basic research that is broadly applicable to a number of environmental and agronomic research areas. For example, the ability of toxic metals, such as arsenic, chromium, and cobalt, to contaminate groundwater resources or enter the foodchain is controlled by the interactions of these metals with minerals surface and microbes. We are specifically looking at the ability of fungally produced manganese oxides to bind toxic metals and degrade organic compounds to better understand their roles in controlling pollutant transport and aid in the design environmental remediation systems.

From an agronomic perspective, crop uptake of nutrient metals is necessary to avoid plant diseases and improve the nutritional value of crops, and the ability of plants to meet its nutritional need is highly dependent on how metal behavior in soils is controlled by minerals and microbes. We are specifically interested in how plants, bacteria, and fungi compete for iron in soils, and how this competition affects microbial dynamics, plant disease, and the nutritional value of crops.

Teaching

Duckworth teaches Soil and Environmental Biogeochemistry (SSC 442), a course that investigates the cycling of nutrients and pollutants in soils and the effects of human activities on both the soil environment and global processes. Connections are made to the real world by using case studies to illustrate the key chemical and biological concepts associated with elemental cycles. The course is taught each spring semester.