Dr. Abdala earned his Bachelor degree in Agronomy (2006) and Master of Science degree in Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition from the Federal University of Viçosa (2008) and his Ph.D. in Environmental Soil Chemistry from the University of Delaware, USA (2012). Dr. Abdala has experience in fertility, management and chemistry of soils, and plant nutrition, focusing his studies on mineral fertilizers and agricultural byproducts, particularly, on the utilization of residues derived from agricultural operations for plant nutrition/crop production and their fate in the environment. His research has also focused on the design and development of novel materials for use in agriculture, such as fertilizers, fertilizer coatings, etc... For this, Dr. Abdala has employed a multitude of macro and microscopic techniques, lab bench/wet chemistry and synchrotron-based imaging and X-rays absorption spectroscopies. Up until December/2018, Dr. Abdala served as a researcher and Head of the Agri-Environmental sciences community at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory, LNLS. Over the last two years, Dr. Abdala has worked as a consultant for agricultural research companies based in Brazil.
