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Distinguished Professor Brajesh Singh is an internationally recognised expert in functional ecology and soil biology at Western Sydney University’s Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment. He earned his PhD from the University of London. His career includes positions at Western Sydney University since 2011, where he became Director of the Global Centre for Land-Based Innovation in 2015 and was conferred the title of Distinguished Professor in 2022, the university’s highest academic honour for extraordinary achievement and international impact. Prior roles encompass work at the James Hutton Institute from 2002 to 2010 and the University of Aberdeen from 2009 to 2010 in the United Kingdom, as well as Visiting Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences from 2014 to 2016. Professor Singh has received numerous prestigious awards, including Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science in 2023, the Dorothy Jones Prize for Microbiology in 2023, the Arrell Global Food Innovation Award in 2024, the NSW Premier’s Prize for Excellence in Biological Sciences in 2025, Fellowship of the Soil Science Society of America in 2023, the JA Prescott Medal from Soil Science Australia in 2021, and recognition as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in Environment and Ecology and Microbiology from 2021 to 2024.
His research examines quantitative relationships between soil biodiversity, including microbial and faunal communities, and ecosystem functions such as primary productivity, climate regulation, and pollution abatement, under pressures from global change. Professor Singh’s work has demonstrated that functional redundancy in soil communities is overstated, with biodiversity loss causing direct proportional declines in ecosystem functions, and has identified climate and resource availability as key drivers of microbial communities at regional and global scales. He develops microbiome-based tools to enhance farm productivity, soil health assessment, climate adaptation, bioremediation, and food security, including patented technologies for pathogen detection used by industries worldwide. Key publications include 'Crop microbiome and sustainable agriculture' (Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2020), 'Host selection shapes crop microbiome assembly and function' (New Phytologist, 2021), 'Impacts of climate extremes on plant pathogens, microbiomes and plant health' (Nature Reviews Microbiology, 2026), and 'Soil Carbon Storage: Modulators, Mechanisms and Modelling' (book, 2018). His contributions influence policy through collaborations with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, European Commission, and bilateral agribusiness initiatives, training stakeholders in sustainable agriculture and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Explore how Australian universities like Western Sydney University and UNSW are spearheading efforts to combat fungal diseases threatening the critically endangered Wollemi Pine, a living fossil with fewer than 50 wild trees.
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