Rate My Professor Sindhu Jagadamma

Sindhu Jagadamma is an Associate Professor of soil science in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture in Knoxville. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Sciences from Kerala Agricultural University in 1994, Master of Science in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry from Kerala Agricultural University, and both Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Soil Science and Agronomy from The Ohio State University in 2005 and 2009, respectively, under the mentorship of Dr. Rattan Lal. Following her PhD, she served as a postdoctoral researcher at The Ohio State University under Dr. Warren Dick and at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with Drs. Melanie Mayes and Terry Hazen. Prior to her U.S. academic career, she worked for four years as an Extension Specialist and Soil Survey Officer in Kerala, India, assisting farmers with land use and agricultural practices. She joined the University of Tennessee in 2016 as a tenure-track assistant professor and was granted tenure and promoted to associate professor in 2022. Jagadamma received the prestigious Ford Foundation International Fellowship in 2003 and the Mid-Career Faculty Research Excellence Award from UTIA AgResearch in 2023.

Jagadamma's research integrates fundamental and applied soil science, with specializations in soil health, soil biogeochemistry, and soil-plant-microbial interactions within agroecosystems. Her applied research examines how conservation agriculture practices—such as crop rotation, multi-species cover cropping, no-tillage, biochar amendments, organic farming, nitrogen efficiency products, and integration of native warm-season grasses—affect soil health, crop yields, and ecosystem services including water quality, air quality, and erosion control in row-crop and pasture systems. Through collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, her fundamental research investigates responses of ecosystem carbon and nutrient cycles to environmental changes using stable isotope techniques and advanced instrumentation in lab- and field-scale experiments. She has mentored four PhD graduates, seven MS graduates, postdoctoral researchers, and undergraduate interns, many of whom have received awards and published first-author papers. Her prolific publication record includes recent peer-reviewed articles such as 'Simultaneous diversification of cover and cash crops: Short-term agronomic and soil health outcomes' (Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 2026), 'Biophysical and management drivers of soil organic carbon accumulation in operational farms across Tennessee, USA' (Soil and Tillage Research, 2026), and 'Microbial communities and their association with soil health indicators under row cash crop and cover crop diversification' (Frontiers in Microbiology, 2025).