Ed Gregorich, Writer and Soil Scientist
March 2026
Ed Gregorich began his career as a respiratory therapist, but shortly after his marriage in 1980 he chose to pursue a new field that truly captivated him. So began eight years of university studies and a 36-year career as a soil scientist, studying the skin that covers the Earth’s surface and plays a central role in gas exchange and the cycling of water and nutrients. Ed has focussed his research on carbon cycling and the effects of agricultural practices on soil health – the capacity of soil to maintain its essential environmental functions and support the food and fibre production that humans depend on.
Ed’s work has been characterized by all the usual features of a research scientist – field studies, lab analysis, writing and editing journal papers and books, membership and leadership in Canadian and international soil science societies, and presenting at conferences around the world. Among his contributions to his field, he served as the editor-in-chief of the international Journal of Environmental Quality and was a member of the International Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. But a key distinctive of his scientific work has been its focus on people and collaboration across disciplines. Ed has taught university courses, supervised many graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, led national and international research teams, presented to Parliamentary committees, and worked with farmers in developing countries. His research has taken him across Canada, north to the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, south to the dry valleys of Antarctica, and to every continent on our planet.
Now retired, Ed enjoys a new freedom in his research interests at the front of a fresh new wave of transdisciplinary work in a research project called (Re)mediating Soils that brings together such varied thinkers and practitioners as natural scientists, social scientists, philosophers, Indigenous people, and artists. Focused on the relationship of people to soil, this work explores ways beyond the time-honoured methods of scientific communication to alert people to the environmental, economic and social perils of neglecting our soils.