Dr. Marcel van der Heijden heads the Plant-Soil Interactions research group (app. 25 members) at the Swiss Federal Research Institute Agroscope (Zurich, Switzerland), is professor for Agroecology and Plant-Microbiome Interactions at Zurich University (Switzerland) and he is an honorary professor for Mycorrhizal Ecology at Utrecht University (the Netherlands). He is a multidisciplinary researcher active in disciplines such as plant-microbe interactions, ecology, agriculture, biodiversity, molecular cross-talk in mycorrhizal associations, plant sciences, plant nutrition, soil sciences, sustainability and environmental protection.

He obtained his PhD in 1999 at the Botanical Institute of Basel University, Switzerland, studying the impact of mycorrhizal fungal diversity on plant diversity, nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning. He is an ISI highly cited researcher (2018, 2019, section cross field) published over 130 scientific papers, including several highly cited papers in Nature, PNAS, Nature Communications, Nature Reviews Microbiology, Ecology Letters and the New Phytologist. He also published over 35 applied papers for environmental engineers, farmers and policy makers aiming to enhance awareness of the importance of soil biodiversity and the significance of soil as a resource for agricultural production, environmental sustainability and nature protection. He headed a range of national and international research projects and obtained over 6 million Euro funded (over 3.5 million as PI).