Sander Bruun

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I am an Associate Professor at the Plant and Soil Science Laboratory at the Department of Agriculture and Ecology. I graduated as a M.Sc. in Biology in 1999 from the University of Copenhagen. Subsequently, I was employed as a research assistant at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University and began my Ph.D. in 2001. After I graduated my Ph.D. in 2004, I have been employed as an Assistant Professor at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University and later as an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen. Research The research field I have been working on is organic matter in soil and degradability of organic matter. This includes all aspects of the importance of organic matter in terms of plant nutrition, carbon sequestration, soil quality, consequences of application of waste and other residual biomass and environmental consequences. A major part of the research has been devoted on mechanisms of stabilization of organic matter and soil organic matter models incorporating the stabilizing mechanisms to describe the mineralization. This has been used to study the importance of stabilizing mechanisms in relation to carbon sequestration and soil quality. Another aspect has been the dynamics of nutrient release especially nitrogen. The methods that have been used have included soil organic matter and nutrient release models, laboratory methods for determining mineralization and nutrient release, methods for isolation of soil organic matter fractions, isotope and spectroscopic methods. I have participated in several large research projects in the described research fields. Methodological experience I have gained experience with a range of different methods relevant for my research field these include: 1. Experience with development and application of mathematical and simulation models ranging from dedicated soil organic matter models to more general agroecosystem models. 2. Research methods used to study soil nutrients and organic matter dynamics in particular isotopic methods for tracer and natural abundance studies and soil organic matter fractionation methods. 3. Research methods for characterizing organic matter including van Soest characterization and near infrared spectroscopy. 4. Statistical methods including analysis of variance and covariane in fixed and mixed models as well as chemometrics and multivariate statistical methods. 5. Application of life cycle assessments for comparison of environmental impacts

Teaching

I have teaching experience from several University courses at all levels from bachelor over candidate and Ph.D. courses. I currently teach 4 university courses on various subjects from an elementary course on "Natural Resources and Ecology" where I have been teaching basic biogeochemistry, to more advanced courses in environmental science. In 2009, I have been course responsible for a course called "life cycle assessment within biological production systems" which has been running for the first time this year. In addition, I have contributed to two regular Ph.D. courses, one on "Isotope methods for studying carbon and nutrient dynamics" and one on "Plant nutrition in terrestrial ecosystems". I have also supervised several B.Sc., M.Sc. projects and co-supervised one Ph.D. project.