M.B. Kirkham is University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University and a graduate of Wellesley College (B.A.) and the University of Wisconsin, Madison (M.S. and Ph.D.).  Professor Kirkham’s research deals with water movement in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum and uptake of heavy metals by plants grown on contaminated soil. She recently authored, “Plastic Particulates in our Terrestrial and Aquatic Environments” with her colleague Dr. Nanthi Bowman of New Castle University in Australia. Professor Kirkham is the author or co-author of over 300 contributions to scientific publications and is on the editorial boards of 16 journals.  

Dr. Kirkham has broken into this largely new field of particulate plastics and their contamination on the terrestrial environment, where no information exists concerning the water-relations of plants grown in soil with particulate plastics. Therefore, she determined the growth, evapotranspiration rate, and stomatal resistance of wheat grown in soil with a particulate plastic. The results were published in 2020.

She has also published three textbooks: Principles of Soil and Plant Water Relations; Elevated Carbon Dioxide: Impacts on Soil and Plant Water Relations; and Principles of Soil and Plant Water Relations, Second Edition. 

Dr. Kirkham has received recognitions, including being named fellow of five societies and elected Honorary Member of the International Union of Soil Sciences.