Rate My Professor Casey Doolette

Dr. Casey Doolette is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science in the School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, College of Sciences, at Adelaide University. His research centers on plant nutrition, soil fertility, and the behavior of nutrients and contaminants—particularly manufactured nanomaterials and industrial chemicals—in the environment. Doolette develops innovative approaches to produce adequate and nutritious food by enhancing agricultural efficiency while maintaining or improving environmental resources. He investigates the effects of pesticides on South Australian soil health and utilizes synchrotron-based X-ray techniques for agricultural and environmental research. Prior to his current appointment, he worked for the Australian Government Department of Environment, performing environmental risk assessments of industrial chemicals used in Australia. Previously associated with the University of South Australia, his contributions bridge environmental science and sustainable agriculture.

Doolette has secured significant research funding, including grants from the Grains Research and Development Corporation for projects such as 'Using recycled phosphorus fertilisers to increase farming profitability, resilience, P use efficiency, and sustainability' (2025-2029), 'Addressing emerging nutrient limitations in the Australian grains industry for improved fertiliser management of potassium (K)' (2025-2029), 'Understanding herbicide residues on challenging soil types within the southern region' (2025-2027), and 'Development of methods to quantify root distribution, length and biomass using a machine learning approach based on X-ray tomography of intact field soil cores' (2023-2026). He has also received funding from the Natural Heritage Trust for 'Rejuvenating agricultural soils to enhance productivity, resilience and carbon sequestration using enhanced rock weathering' (2025-2028) and from Anglo American Woodsmith Limited for 'Improving farmer profitability and sustainability by understanding polyhalite fertiliser interactions with soil' (2024-2028). His peer-reviewed publications include 'Mapping the fertosphere's phosphorus availability distribution in a field trial using a novel diffusive gradients in thin-films (fDGT) technique' (Soil, 2026), 'Unveiling chemical gradients in the fertosphere: a paradigm shift to enhance fertilizer efficiency and decrease the environmental impact of overfertilisation' (Environmental Science & Technology, 2025), 'Effects of Phosphorus Deficiency on Leaf Surface Morphology: absorption and Translocation of Foliar-Applied Phosphorus in Four Barley Cultivars' (Physiologia Plantarum, 2025), 'Mapping phosphorus availability in soil at a large scale and high resolution using novel diffusive gradients in thin films designed for x-ray fluorescence microscopy' (Environmental Science and Technology, 2024), and highly cited earlier works like 'Foliar application of zinc sulphate and zinc EDTA to wheat leaves: differences in mobility, distribution, and speciation' (Journal of Experimental Botany, 2018) and 'Transport of silver nanoparticles in saturated columns of natural soils' (Science of the Total Environment, 2013).