Since 2008, Heike Knicker holds the position of a “Profesora de Investigación” at the IRNAS-CSIC in Seville, Spain. In 2016, she was awarded the Philippe Duchaufour Medal of the European Geosciences Union for outstanding research in the field of soil organic matter (SOM), in particular on the impact of fire on humic materials, and for furthering the knowledge of the origin and properties of pyrogenic soil organic carbon and nitrogen.
Her main research interests are in the field of soil biochemistry, SOM and impact of soil amendments, the carbon and nitrogen cycle in soils, the impact of vegetation fires and biochars on SOM and advancing the use of NMR spectroscopy in those areas. Her contributions to the impact of SOM quality and quantity on pedogenesis and to the assessment of the role of stabilized organic N in the N and C cycle are worldwide recognized. She is one of the top leading scientists of the world on the use of solid state NMR applied to environmental complex matrices, such as soils.