Philip M. Haygarth is a Professor of Soil and Water Science, and a biogeochemist focused on nutrients, notably phosphorus, and started his research in the early 1990s at BBSRC’s North Wyke (now Rothamsted Research) and progressed to Lancaster University in 2008, studying fundamental mechanisms and processes in soils and water, subsequently widening to catchment, national and global scales.

Phil’s total research income at Lancaster has been £14.4m, for which £9.8m he was lead PI.  Highlights were 2010-2020 leading the National Defra Demonstration Test Catchment team in the River Eden and 2015-2024 as Director of the National NERC/BBSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Soil Science.  Phil developed the much-used diffuse pollution nutrient ‘Transfer Continuum’ and ensuing ‘Cost Curve’ and UK ‘Diffuse Pollution Inventory’ models that provided foundation for nutrient models being used by the UK Government and worldwide (2005 to date), making world-leading contributions to knowledge in nutrient cycling in agriculture and the environment, with ca. 260 papers, some in Nature journals  (5 since 2021) and other significant published outputs, including authored books.

Phil became Director of the Lancaster University Graduate School for the Environment in September 2022, reflecting his long-term commitment to post graduate doctoral training (and his lead if the UKRI CDT on Soil Science). Phil has personally supervised 26 successful PhD students, and indirectly helped an additional 40 PhDs, though his role as Director of STARS.  Phil provides strategic guidance to planners and governors at various scales internationally, including the UK, Ireland, New Zealand in particular.

Most recently, Phil has been focused on extreme event impacts on soil-water nutrient biogeochemistry, and in 2022 started a new collaborative UKRI NERC research grant  called ‘Accelerating Nutrient Cycles at the Riparian Land:Water Interface’, with research on nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon focused release from riparian river systems in northern England’s Eden, Scotland’s River Dee, the Swedish boreal forest and eastern Germany.

Highlight activities 2025:

• Appointed advisor to the Northern Ireland Government Department of Agriculture, Environment, Rural Affairs’ Higher Level Science Advisory Group 2025
• Nature Food paper – “Soil phosphorus stocks could prolong global reserves and improve water quality”
• Appointed to the Environmental Markets Board Scientific Advisory Group
• Appointed chair of NERC panel Global Partnerships Seedcorn Fund June 2025
• Invited Keynote plenary lectures to ASLO (March- USA), ISSPA (June, USA)