He is a Distinguished Laureate Professor and Director of the Global Centre for Environmental Remediation in the University of Newcastle, Australia. Apart from his academic role, he holds leadership position in the Cooperative Research Centre for the Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment.
According to his publicly available biography, it appears that Ravi takes a risk-based approach to environmental remediation, in which he helped bring industry, academia and government stakeholders together to work collaboratively.
He was awarded the European Geosciences Union's Kabata-Pendias Medal in 2023, and the Mahatma Gandhi Leadership in 2022
2026: Ravi Naidu has achieved the remarkable milestone of 100,000 citations of his scholarly works, reflecting his globally recognised contributions to soil science, environmental contamination and remediation research.
2025: The Enterprise World Magazine highlights Ravi Naidu as "Australia’s Most Influential Voices in Sustainability".
2022-2025: Australian Leader award by Research.com in two disciplines, including Environmental Sciences and Chemistry.
2023: Glinka Soil Prize by the United Nations FAO. It is the highest recognition in soil science sector.
2023: Recipient of European Geoscience's prestigious Kabata-Pendias Medal for outstanding research on toxic metals and soil science.
2022: Mahatma Gandhi Leadership award, House of Commons London for outstanding soil and environmental science research.
2022 Elected Chair of UN-FAO International Network on Soil Pollution (INSOP)
2013 Winner, Richard Pratt – Banksia CEO Award, Banksia Sustainability Awards
Risk-based environmental remediation
Ravi Naidu's detailed analysis focuses on contaminants from agriculture and industry and their effects on the environment and humans. He explains that his research examines how contaminants are present in the environment, their interactions, and how they reach people or nature.
In his Glinka Award description, it is acknowledged that he had contributed research about contaminant and soil properties that helped sustainable soil management today. However, to do this, his investigations mostly target industrial contaminants, driven largely by the industries themselves.
Ravi Naidu and a few of his collaborators published a prospective review article in 2021 titled "Chemical pollution: A growing peril and potentially catastrophic risk to humanity." Accordingly to PlumX metrics, this article has captured the attention of various other articles, policy documents, social media, and news.
International engagement
UNEP Global Environmental Outlook 7: Naidu contributed to this report as one of the lead authors of the "Land and Soils" chapter.
FAO Global Report on Soil Pollution (2021): Naidu led the SE Asia and Pacific section. The report has been cited in over 11 policy documents, 39 peer-reviewed articles, and discussed over 1,600 times in news and social media.
UN-Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (UN-ITPS): Serving member representing Oceania.
International Network on Soil Pollution: Chair of the network.
Publications
The following articles authored by Ravi Naidu cover his multidisciplinary environmental science career:
Naidu, R., Biswas, B., Nuruzzaman, M. & Singh, B.K. 2025. Bioremediation strategies of heavy metal(loid)s in agricultural soils and crops. Nature Reviews Bioengineering. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-025-00345-y
Naidu, R., Bolan, N.S., Kookana, R.S., and the late Tiller, K.G. 1994. Ionic strength and pH effects on surface charge and Cd sorption characteristics of soils. European Journal of Soil Science 45, 419-429. External Link
Naidu, R., Biswas, B., Willett, I.R., Cribb, J., Singh, B.K., Nathanail, C.P., Coulon, F., Semple, K.T., Jones, K.C., Barclay, A. & Aitken, R.J. 2021. Chemical pollution: A growing peril and potential catastrophic risk to humanity. Environment International, 156, 106616.External Link
Naidu, R., Biswas, B., Chen, Z.-S., Jit, J., Rahman, M.M., Duan, L., Kim, J., Lee, K., Phenrat, T., Khan, N. & Wijayawardena, A. 2021. Status of Soil Pollution in Asia and the Pacific. Global Assessment of Soil Pollution. UNEP and FAO. External Link
Naidu, R., Kookana, R.S., Sumner, M.E., Harter, R.D. & the late Tiller, K.G. 1997. Cadmium sorption and transport in Variable Charge Soil: A review. Journal of Environmental Quality 26, 602-617. External Link
Dahlawi, S., Naeem, A., Rengel, Z. & Naidu, R. 2018. Biochar application for the remediation of salt-affected soils: Challenges and opportunities. Science of the Total Environment, 625, 320-335. External Link
Smith, E., Naidu, R. & Alston, A.M. 1999. Chemistry of arsenic in soils: I. Sorption of arsenate and arsenite by four Australian soils. Journal of Environmental Quality, 28, 1719-1726. External Link
Nuruzzaman, M., Rahman, M. M., Liu, Y. J. & Naidu, R. 2016. Nanoencapsulation, Nano-guard for Pesticides: A New Window for Safe Application. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 64, 1447-1483. External Link
Juhasz, A.L., Smith, E., Weber, J., Rees, M., Rofe, A., Kuchel, T., Sansom, L. & Naidu, R. 2006. In vivo assessment of arsenic bioavailability in rice and its impact on human health risk assessment. Environmental Health Perspectives, 114, 1826-1831. External Link
Naidu, R., Arias, V. & Jit, J. 2016. Emerging Contaminants in the environment: Risk-based analysis for better management. Chemosphere, 154, 350-357. External Link
Huq, S.M.I., Joardar, J.C., Parvin, S., Correll, R., & Naidu, R. 2006. Arsenic Contamination in Food-chain: Transfer of Arsenic into Food Materials through Groundwater Irrigation. Journal of Health Population and Nutrition, 24(3), 305-316. External Link
