**Giovanni Garau**

Giovanni Garau is Associate Professor of Agricultural Chemistry at the Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Sassari (UNISS, Italy). He has go<sup>t</sup> a PhD in Microbial Biotechnologies (UNISS, 2004) and, as a visiting PhD student, he undertook research at the *Centre for Rhizobium Studies* of the Murdoch University of Perth (Western Australia, Oct 2002–July 2003). In 2007, he spent almost one year as Post Doc at Murdoch University (Perth, WA) investigating *quorum sensing* in rhizobia and characterizing new symbiotic N-fixing *Burkholderia* adapted to acidic soils. Since 2008, he obtained several Post Doc research fellowships at UNISS mainly addressing soil chemistry, biochemistry and microbiology aspects. In particular, his research activity mainly focuses on the mobility, bioavailability and bioaccessibility of potentially toxic elements in polluted soils, their impact on soil microbial communities and soil functioning and sustainable remediation approaches.
