Abdallah Awad is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Desert Agriculture at KAUST, specializing in Plant-Microbe interactions. He obtained his PhD in Soil Microbial Ecology from Georg August University of Göttingen in Germany. Abdallah's research primarily focuses on investigating the functional role of bacteria and fungi involved in mutualistic symbiosis, particularly mycorrhizal fungi, which significantly contribute to enhancing soil fertility and plant health.
Recently, Abdallah joined the Salt lab at KAUST to research the effectiveness of newly developed nitrification inhibitors (NIs). His work involves studying their impact on the activity of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and archaea, which are responsible for converting ammonia to nitrate. The objective is to reduce nitrate leaching into groundwater and promote the long-term retention of nitrogen fertilizer in the soil.