Nadia Zermani (she/her)

Nadia is a PhD candidate in soil microbiology at La Trobe University. She studies how the microbial communities in our soils respond to the way we farm. What began as scientific interest has grown into something bigger. She now sees soil health as central to mitigating climate change and keeping agriculture productive.

For her, science only matters if it reaches the people who work the land. She has taken her research to regional communities, including at a farmer exhibition at a Mildura field day with the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre. The challenge, she says, is that soil health improves slowly, while farmers face immediate pressure to stay profitable.

In the Fellowship, Nadia aims to make sustainability and science accessible in multiple languages and for different audiences, to inspire additional pathways into these fields.

Nadia spends her spare time chasing good coffee and getting outdoors.