Esther Goidts

Esther Goidts is a bio-engineer with a focus on soil science, and holds a Ph.D. in Science from the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.

She joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment within the Public Service of Wallonia as a soil expert, and works since 14 years in the Soil Protection Direction inside the Department of Soil and Waste.

As a senior advisor, she is in charge of R&D in the field of soil protection in the wide sense of soil degradation (both local and diffuse pollution, but also soil organic matter decline, erosion, compaction, …), with the aim of improving legal bases and associated tools related to soil protection, management and restoration. She is dealing with current research projects focused on the monitoring on soil carbon stocks and biological quality, development of a soil health index, management of organic materials recycled on soils, transfer of pollutants from soil to plants and risk assessment of polluted soils with links to human health.

She is also highly involved in european discussions and associated Belgian position regarding soil issues, such as the proposal of the Soil Monitoring Law. She likes to interact with people from different background and build bridges between knowledge and policy makers in order to facilitate an effective implementation of the sustainable management of soils.