Rate My Professor Frederik van der Bom

Dr. Frederik van der Bom serves as Honorary Fellow and Lecturer in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability at the University of Queensland. His research specializes in soil biology, phosphorus management, root architecture, and nutrient dynamics in soils, with a focus on fertilizer impacts on soil and crops. He explores plant-soil interactions, genotype-by-environment-by-management effects on crop productivity, and strategies for sustainable nutrient cycling to support global food security amid climate change. Van der Bom investigates root traits for efficient resource capture, phosphorus bioavailability and speciation using advanced techniques like synchrotron X-ray methods, and microbial community responses to long-term fertilization.

Van der Bom completed his PhD at the University of Copenhagen before joining the University of Queensland as Postdoctoral Research Fellow from 2018 to 2021, Research Fellow from 2021 to 2022, and Honorary Fellow/Lecturer since 2022. He also holds a Tenure Track Assistant Professor position in the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. His career emphasizes integrating laboratory, greenhouse, and field experiments to address nutrient limitations in cropping systems, particularly in Vertisols and drought-prone environments. He contributes to teaching, including courses on legume nitrogen dynamics.

Van der Bom has an extensive publication record in leading journals. Key works include 'Overcoming recycling barriers to transform global phosphorus management' (Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 2025), 'Synchrotron-based 3D X-ray computed tomography reveals root system architecture: plastic responses to phosphorus placement' (Geoderma, 2025), 'Phosphorus dynamics in P-depleted sub-surface of cropping soils in northeast Australia' (Geoderma, 2025), 'Root angle, phosphorus, and water: interactions and effects on durum wheat genotype performance in drought-prone environments' (Plant and Soil, 2024), 'Short-term phosphorus sorption and desorption in contrasting cropped Vertisols' (European Journal of Soil Science, 2023), 'Root architecture for improved resource capture: trade-offs in complex environments' (Journal of Experimental Botany, 2020), and 'Long-term fertilisation strategies and form affect nutrient budgets and soil test values' (Plant and Soil, 2019). Additional contributions cover soil microbial diversity under fertilization (Soil Biology & Biochemistry, 2018) and resilient soil biology in no-till systems (book chapter, 2020). His work informs phosphorus recycling, root ideotype deployment, and climate-resilient agriculture.