Michael Kaiser joined the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Department of Agronomy and Horticulture Jan. 1 as an assistant professor in applied soil chemistry.
Two weeks after arriving in the department, Kaiser began teaching the undergraduate soil resources course Agronomy/Horticulture/Soil 153 Soil Resources.
Kaiser has a 75 percent teaching and 25 percent research appointment. His research focuses on the effects of compost/biochar mixtures on the formation of soil aggregates and the storage of organic matter in surface and subsurface soil.
Kaiser was born in Wernigerode, a small town in central Germany. He earned a diploma in geoecology and a doctorate in natural sciences from the University of Potsdam, Germany. He also completed habilitation, a qualification to conduct self-contained university teaching, in soil chemistry from the University of Kassel, Germany. Habilitation, the key for access to a professorship in Germany and other European countries, is the highest academic qualification attained through examinations and qualifies one to conduct self-contained university teaching.
Prior to moving to Nebraska, Kaiser worked at the Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research near Berlin, Germany, at the University of California, Merced, and at the University of Kassel.
While at the University of Kassel, Kaiser applied at Nebraska and made his first visit to Lincoln in June 2017. He and his family arrived in Lincoln in late December. Unlike his family, he really enjoyed the strong winter conditions compared to the unusually warm and rainy weather in Germany over the last two decades. With the arrival of spring, he and his family are now looking forward to exploring Nebraska.
