Kate Scow is professor of soil science and microbial ecology in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources and director of the Russell Ranch Sustainable Agriculture Facility.

Scow also is chair of the International Agricultural Development Graduate Group. She is a fellow of the Soil Science Society of America and chief editor for the journal Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 

Scow’s research program investigates the role of soil microbial communities in providing ecosystem services in agricultural and polluted ecosystems. Specifically, she investigates linkages between microbial diversity and nitrogen cycling, responses of soil functional diversity to long-term management practices, effects of co-contaminants in organic amendments on soil communities, and works in Uganda on soil management and irrigation practices for vegetable production by smallholder farmers. 

She received her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in soil science from Cornell University in 1986 and 1989, respectively.