Obituary: Philip Charles Brookes: 26th March 1951–28th September 2023

The description “world renowned” is probably overused in obituaries of academics but in the case of Phil Brookes it is well deserved in view of his contributions to soil science in over 200 papers in refereed journals – many of these in Soil Biology and Biochemistry. First, his research addressed some of the most fundamental questions about how soil organisms survive in the substrate-poor environment of soil and how the population derives energy from soil organic matter. Second, many of his papers are highly cited; the chloroform fumigation-extraction method for estimating biomass C (the quantity of carbon held in the cells of living microorganisms in soil) was for some years the most highly cited paper in Soil Biology and Biochemistry and the method is still widely used some 36 years after its original publication. Third, Phil attracted numerous students and early career scientists from around the world to work with him at Rothamsted, and later in China, so he leaves a legacy of loyal and enthusiastic soil scientists globally who learned from him about soil microbes and their role in the cycling of carbon and nutrients