Research: My research is mainly focused on the relations between soil hydrophobicity and soil physico-chemical properties on soils from different geographical regions. Further, I apply visible near-infrared spectroscopy (vis-NIRS) and chemometrics to predict and characterize various basic and functional soil properties important for assessing the risk of pesticide leaching. Among these soil properties are; texture and organic carbon (OC), the clay-to-OC saturation threshold, the full particle-size distribution curve, soil structural indices, pesticide and PAH sorption coefficients, and hydrophobicity.