Dr. Ryan Hansen, Kansas State University

Date: Thursday, 16 April 2026, 11:30 am, SARDI Plant Research Centre Auditorium

Title: Advancing Soil and Seed Treatments for Sustainable Agriculture in the Central High Plains 

Abstract: Increasing global food demand combined with more frequent and intense periods of drought necessitates new strategies to improve agricultural water use efficiency. In addition, reducing our dependence on synthetic fertilizers for crop growth remains a critical challenge for sustainable food production. In this presentation, I will highlight recent efforts at Kansas State University to address both areas using soil and seed treatments. First, I will highlight the microbial inoculants for climate resilient agriculture (MICRA) project. The MICRA project combines engineers, mathematicians, soil scientists, social scientists, and agricultural economists to develop water conservation strategies in the water-stressed Central High Plains region of the United States, where irrigation relies on the rapidly depleting Ogallala Aquifer. A central project goal is to establish fundamental knowledge on the impacts of soil amendments – specifically soil wetting bacteria, biosurfactants, and biochar – designed to enhance soil water holding capacity and improve agroecosystem productivity during periods of drought. Second, I will discuss our recent work developing a novel strategy for bioprospecting the rhizosphere of corn crops to discover bacterial isolates useful for biofertilizer formulations. The approach relies on a microfluidic device that screens interactions across thousands of unique bacteria and identifies strain combinations optimized for plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) survival and growth. The approach has been used to generate formulations of synergistic, diazotrophic PGPB consortia that have been applied to corn seedlings to boost productivity in preliminary lab-scale studies, demonstrating the potential to reduce the amount of synthetic nitrogen input necessary for corn production.

Bio: Dr. Ryan Hansen is an associate professor in the Tim Taylor Department of Chemical Engineering at Kansas State University. He completed his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2008 and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Colorado School of Mines and as a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Hansen’s research develops novel materials and analytical tools to study microbial interactions in effort to develop bioinoculants for promoting soil health and crop production, as well as probiotics for gut health. He is the current recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award and a visiting scientist at the University of Technology Sydney. He has served as lead PI on multiple projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy and is the recipient of an NSF Career Award. His teaching has been recognized through the College of Engineering Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Faculty Excellence in Chemical Engineering Award at Kansas State University.

https://adelaide.zoom.us/j/88324941961?pwd=iBEvCU8wU2bKbEa3JaDzLIDGOZtEkj.1

Webinar ID: 883 2494 1961, Passcode:429141