“Soils are the basis of life, ninety-five percent of our food comes from the soil.” –Maria-Helena Semedo

Waqas is a soil scientist whose research work emphasizes soil-plant interaction under abiotic stresses. He graduated with a PhD in Soil Science back in 2015. His research work provided innovative strategies to tackle the issues of soil salinity in maize crop using silicon nutrition.  

Since 2016, Waqas has broadened his research domain by winning back-to-back national projects (0.21 million USD) on the hot topics of biochar, silicon, soil salinity and their impacts on wheat and rice crops. In these projects, Dr. Waqas used biochar as a nutrient carrier for the plant roots under soil salinity and heavy metal stresses. He later confirmed biochar's impact on wheat root growth using the microelectrode ion flux measurement technique at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania, back in 2019. Meanwhile, Waqas worked smartly with his postgraduate research students to examine the response of nutrients and metabolites by using biochar/engineered biochar in different vegetables under various soil abiotic stresses. Waqas's lab has produced high-quality publications in the last few years from these projects.

In December 2024, he delivered a Keynote Speaker presentation entitled 'Minerals doped biochar: A potential source for ecological restoration' at an International Academic Symposium entitled “Cultivated Land Protection and Ecological Security” jointly organized by the Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences and The University of Western Australia.  

• Adjunct Research Fellow 
  School of Biological Sciences,  UWA, Perth, Australia
  10/2023 till Present  
  - Investigating  effects  of  different  environmental  factors  such  as   soil  salinity  and drought  prevalent  in  Western  Australia  on  the production  of  various  crops  such  as wheat, mung bean and quinoa
  - Evaluating  and  addressing  the  effects  of  various  cultivation  techniques  like  seed growth in incubators, soil, and hydroponics on crop production
  - Accomplished detailed  experiments  by  using  various  advanced techniques  such  as  ion  flux  measurements  at  soil-plant  root  interface  and  root membrane potential measurements using MIFE
• Assistant Professor
  Department of Agriculture,  Government College University, Lahore Pakistan
  03/2016 till Present 
  - Involved in teaching (40%) and research (40%) of undergraduate and postgraduate students. The remaining (20%) workload used to perform administrative services at the University
  - HEC-approved Ph.D. Supervisor
  - Successfully supervised 2 PhD theses, 13 Master's and 16 Undergrad research dissertations

• University  Associate |  Adjunct Researcher                   
• Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania, Australia (2019-2024)
• In  2019,  worked  as  an  Adjunct  Researcher  on a project with Sergey Shabala
• In 2023-2024, worked with Sergey Shabala at UWA and Meixue Zhu at UTAS in different glasshouse experiments

• Foreign Expert
  - hired by Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal         Husbandry Sciences, Inner Mongolia, China
  07/2022 - 12/2023  
  - Developed and delivered academic reports on tomato growth under polluted soil
  - Improved  research  efficiency of postgraduate students by  providing  biochar technical and test guidance 

Foreign Expert Scientist (2024-2026)  

Project entitled “Response mechanism of salt glands in isolating sodium ions in plants adapting to salt stress” at Inner Mongolia University funded by the State Government of China 

Since 2016, Waqas teaching skills have always remained student-centered and blended with innovative approaches for student engagement and critical thinking. Recognizing his extraordinary teaching skills and delivery methods, he was first awarded with Gold Medal for best performance in teaching and research in 2020 by the Governor, Punjab, Pakistan and then he received the prestigious Best University Teacher Award-2022 at Government College University, Lahore. These awards are a testament to his commitment and impact as a teacher in the field of education. Building on his teaching achievements, Waqas accomplished the Associate Fellowship of Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), UK in 2022. It’s a necessary certification that underlines his teaching skills provided by National Academy of Higher Education.