A huge congratulations to Team Barefoot Germany for winning 1st place in the Group Judging Competition at the 5th International Soil Judging Contest, held during the 23rd World Congress of Soil Science in Nanjing, China.

The team included three students from Technical University of Munich, whom I am proud to supervise in their M.Sc. thesis projects, alongside outstanding teammates from other universities. The team consisted of Fiona Gruber, Simon Marx, Alexander Tevzadze, Sebastian Kolbinger, and Jule Schwomstedt, who achieved an impressive 6th place in the individual competition! The team coaches Tobias Klöffel and Andreas Wild are also TUM alumni who completed their M.Sc. studies at TUM School of Life Sciences. What an outstanding achievement to coach the next generation of pedologists. Until the World Congress 2030 in Toronto, the impressive group competition trophy is now with the German Soil Science Society in Göttingen.

In the overall ranking, Team Barefoot Germany secured 3rd place, finishing behind two strong teams from the United States. The competition challenged participants to classify and interpret soils using both international classification systems, the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) and USDA Soil Taxonomy.

Congratulations to all participating students from around the globe for an inspiring demonstration of pedology skills and teamwork on the world stage!
#Pedology #SoilJudging #WCSS2026 #WorldCongressOfSoilScience #SoilScience #TUM #StudentSuccess #WRB #SoilTaxonomy #Nanjing 🌱🌍🏆