Distinguished Professor Brajesh Singh of Western Sydney University has been named the winner of the 2025 NSW Premier’s Prize for Science and Engineering for Excellence in Biological Sciences for his work in soil ecology. Deeply interested in the ways that soil biodiversity can impact entire ecosystems, his work has been central to shaping global policies, shifting preconceptions about the very soil we walk on and has had a practical impact on the agricultural industry.
After years of working in the field, Prof. Singh has published about 300 papers on the subject of soil biodiversity. His prolific career is no doubt a by-product of his deep passion for the subject.
Describing his research in soil biodiversity and its impact on ecosystems, Prof. Singh says, “If you remove microbes from our planet, nothing survives. Microbes are the key regulators of sustainability, yet they are somewhat of a black box.”
He goes on, “So, there are two fundamental questions I’ve been looking to answer. One is, what happens when we lose soil biodiversity? I don’t simply mean if everything is wiped out, I mean one hundred species or so… my research has shown that the entire ecosystem’s functioning reduces proportionately. The second question is how do we predict the distribution and behaviour of microbes, bacteria and fungi if we can’t see these things?”
Answering these questions could help in the fight against climate change and lead to innovations which significantly change the agricultural industry – from encouraging plants to grow even in drought conditions to creating fertilisers which emit fewer greenhouse gasses.
His dedication has propelled his work to the global stage, where he’s chaired several international organisations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization’s International Network on Soil Biodiversity and the International Technical Panel on Soils. It was in these same roles that he realised the challenges to ensuring greater soil biodiversity internationally.
“A number of countries simply do not have the capacity, either due to insufficient infrastructure or limited expertise to even do basic measurements [of their country’s biodiversity],” he notes when citing the reasons for the inconsistent adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which is a framework first introduced in 2022 to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2050.
He and his team are now steadily working to ensure all nations are able to adopt this agreement.
“We’ve created three tiers of reporting. The first tier accommodates the challenges faced by developing countries, the second is somewhat similar and the third level of reporting is something we hope to help developing countries achieve in the near future.”
With characteristic humility, he claims his recent recognition is a credit to all those he’s worked with, especially his team of researchers at the University’s Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment.
“The type of research we do, which addresses problems on a global scale, cannot be completed by just one person,” he muses. “It’s inherently collaborative… I always accept awards like this on behalf of the whole team.”
Despite the multiplicity of challenges he’s faced within both science and policy work, he claims his greatest achievement is teaching and inspiring the youngsters in his lab, which over the past 15 years, includes 30 postdocs and more than 30 PhD students.
To him, the award carries significance for its potential to encourage young scientists to continue working towards their goals.
“Science is a career that can be very rewarding. It may not be the same industry it was years ago; we are constantly on edge nowadays because you need money to do research, then you have to publish papers, impact policy and teach. It is a multi-dimensional job that requires multiple skills,” Prof. Singh says.
“But it’s been the most rewarding journey of my life.”
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