Prof. Jaume Porta Casanellas

Prof. Jaume Porta Casanellas passed away on September 2023, at the age of 79. The scientist and engineer Jaume Porta Casanellas (Barcelona, 1944), was the first rector of the University of Lleida (1993-2003) and member of the Institute of Catalan Studies (1997-2023). Porta was a professor of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry at the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria Agrària (Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineering) at the University of Lleida, where he was an emeritus professor since 2014. Prof. Jaume Porta Casanellas was one of the Spanish's great soil specialists. Jaume Porta co-founded and served as the secretary of the Editorial Board of the Spanish Journal of Soil Science and was President of the Spanish Soil Science Society (SECS) between 2009 and 2017.

After this period, he was appointed SECS Honorary Member in 2018 and SECS Honorary President in 2019. Prof. Porta made a great contribution to the advancement of soil science literacy by publishing more than 25 reference books and multiple scientific papers and being the mastermind and director of the Multilingual Dictionary of Soil Science, a fundamental tool for the harmonisation and dissemination of soil science concepts. He had close cooperation with the GSP as well as ITPS members, was the organizer and speaker of numerous international conferences

Dr. Juan Antonio Comerma Gutiérrez

Dr. Juan Antonio Comerma Gutiérrez passed away on November 2023, at the age of 85. Juan Comerma graduated in Agricultural Engineering in 1961 from the Central University of Venezuela. He was a researcher at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (CENIAP) from 1961 to 1995, where he served as National Soil Research Coordinator, Deputy Director and Director of CENIAP, and Member of the Board of Directors of FONAIAP.

His contributions to the development of soil science in Venezuela are innumerable. Among them are the improvement of soil profile description procedures, laboratory characterisation and soil correlation; the adaptation to Venezuela of the methodology for classifying land by its Agricultural Land Use Capacity and the FAO approach to Land Evaluation and Agro-ecological Zoning; his contribution to the adaptation of Soil Taxonomy to tropical conditions; the development of a methodology for the environmental characterisation of experimental sites in the tropics; the development of a methodology for the environmental characterisation of experimental sites in Agriculture; and his contributions to the validation and application of crop simulation models (CERES, SOYGRO, etc) as a means of transferring Agrotechnology in Venezuela and other tropical countries.

As a recognition of his contributions to soil taxonomy, he was awarded with the Guy Smith Medal of the International Union of Soil Sciences in 2016. His scientific production has been collected in more than 80 publications of research articles and papers presented at scientific events. During his involvement as a member of the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils, he made major contributions to the consolidation of the Global Soil Partnership and the development of pivotal documents such as the Status of the World's Soil Resources Report and the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management, among others.

The Global Soil Partnership Secretariat would like to pay tribute to these two great experts and appreciate their invaluable contribution to soil science in Venezuela, Spain and worldwide. With heavy hearts, we mourn the loss of these two extraordinary experts, great friends and exceptional mentors.