Dr. Elizabeth Guertal is a soil fertility scientist with extensive experience in research, teaching, and international agricultural development. Before joining IFDC as Director of the Laboratory of Innovations for Fertilizers in the United States (LIFe-US), she served as Project Director for USAID’s Feed the Future Sustainable Intensification and Innovation Lab at Kansas State University and spent 28 years as a professor in Auburn University’s Department of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences. A recognized expert in soil fertility, Dr. Guertal has secured more than $32 million in research funding, authored over 200 publications, and delivered presentations across the United States and internationally. She is a former President of the Crop Science Society of America, a Fulbright Fellow, and a Jefferson Science Fellow. She is also a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She earned her bachelor’s degree in agriculture and master’s in soil science from The Ohio State University and her doctorate in soil science from Oklahoma State University.
