"I think, therefore I am"
Graduated from Martin-Luther-University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, Master of Science.
PhD Thesis: “Isotopic studies of amino acids and nucleic bases transformation in soil” for the degree of Candidate of Biological Sciences, Moscow Agricultural Timiryazev Academy.
Head of Isotope Laboratory, Moscow Agricultural Timiryazev Academy (now - Russian State Agrarian University - MAA named after K. A. Timiryazev).
Postdoc, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin.
Postdoc, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart.
Habilitation “Low-Molecular Organic Substances in Soil: Tracer Studies and Theory”, University of Hohenheim Stuttgart.
Heisenberg Fellowship (DFG), University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart.
Director of the Institute of Landscape Biogeochemistry (ZALF Müncheberg).
Professor for Landscape Biogeochemistry, Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus.
Professor, Head of the Department of Agroecosystems Research, University of Bayreuth.
Professor at the University of Göttingen, Head of the Departments: Soil Science of Temperate Zones; Agricultural Soil Science.
Leading researcher of the Smart Technologies Laboratory for Sustainable Urban Development, Agrarian and Technological Institute, RUDN University.
Teaching
Broad range of courses to Basic Pedology, Global Change, Rhizosphere Processes, Application of Isotopes in Environmental Studies, Soil Geography, Plant Nutrition, Field Courses on Soil Mapping (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Germany, Russia).
Scientific Achievements
- Highly Cited Researcher in
2015-2023 (according to Clarivate, provider of Web of Science database) - Author of more than 780 publications indexed by the Web of Science database, including:
- Highly Cited Papers > 60 (top 1% citations)
- Hot Papers 15 (top 0.1% citations)
Expertise
- The research topics of Yakov Kuzyakov and his group over the last 25 years have been focused on soil processes and functions, and interactions between soils, vegetation and microorganisms in natural and agricultural ecosystems under global change.
- By means of isotopes and biomarkers Yakov Kuzyakov has investigated drivers, processes and consequences of soil degradation, turnover of carbon © and nutrients, effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on microbial transformation of organic matter, greenhouse gas emissions and C sequestration. These processes were analyzed from submolecular to ecosystem and catchment levels and were closely connected with ecological applications, e.g. ecosystem stability, water pollution, land scarcity, and C and nutrient use efficiency.
- To investigate and to develop further these topics, Yakov Kuzyakov applied for more than 30 years a broad range of approaches based on stable (13C, 15N) and radioactive (14C, 32P, 33P, 137Cs) isotopes including labeling, natural abundance, isotope dilution, position specific labeling, phosphor imaging.
- In the last 15 years his group linked various stable isotope approaches with compound specific isotope analyses of biomarkers including PLFA, amino sugars, neutral sugars, neutral lipids, etc. The last 5 years were devoted to visualization of enzyme activities in soil that led to development of new approach soil zymography.