Areas of Expertise
Soil conservation
Soil fertility
Nutrient cycling
Soil health
Nutrient loss reduction

Assistant Professor
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
217-300-7059
margenot@illinois.edu

Dr. Margenot took what he learned earning his PhD at the University of California Davis to East Africa and Columbia where he focused on soil fertility in grain cropping systems. He also spent time researching soil fertility in horticultural crops in California. Since 2017, he’s been investigating nutrient management and loss mitigation in Illinois corn-soybean systems.

He believes soybeans have the potential to lead the way in conservation across the Illinois and larger Corn/Soybean Belt cropping systems. It’s this belief that fuels his current roles. He runs the Soils Lab at the University of Illinois where he leads a team of 30+ researchers, grad students, and technicians. A proponent of “knowledge is power,” he teaches organic chemistry, soil fertility, and the agriculture and science of coffee to undergrad and grad students in the Department of Crop Sciences and the greater campus. In addition, Dr. Margenot serves as the technical lead on soil health methods for USDA NRCS and as associate director of the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center at University of Illinois.

Fun Facts!
In his spare time, Dr. Margenot unwinds in his 8,000+ square-foot vegetable garden where he loves growing different heirloom corn to experiment with different flavors of cornmeal. He even tills Drummer by hand and is in search of heirloom soybeans to plant!