Soils and environmental quality issues encompass a host of issues, approaches, and even philosophies and usually require interdisciplinary training and thinking. This session highlights some of the leaders in addressing such issues and common threads among their approaches proven successful in solving problems from a variety of perspectives. Both senior and junior scientists will be invited to make presentations, and a not so subtle commonality (the dendrite effect) among researchers should become apparent. Talks should be informative and stimulating for those at all levels of involvement in the study of soils and environmental quality, and are intended to cover basic and applied science, public and regulatory policy, as well as implications to human and environmental health.