On June 15, the State Key Laboratory of Efficient Utilization of Arable Land in China successfully held the sixth session of its Academic Salon series. The event featured a keynote lecture by Professor Richard John Heck from the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Guelph, Canada, who also serves as chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2030 World Congress of Soil Science. More than 70 early and mid-career researchers participated in the seminar and discussions.

In his presentation, titled "The IUSS Digital Soil Thin Section Collections Working Group and Digitizing the Canadian Soil Thin Section Collection," Professor Heck introduced the background, objectives, and future plans of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) initiative to digitize soil thin section collections. He highlighted the challenges facing many valuable soil micromorphology collections, including limited accessibility, lack of common standards, and preservation risks. The working group aims to establish an international framework covering digitization technologies, standardized guidelines, open-access repositories, and AI-assisted analysis to promote the preservation and sharing of soil thin section resources worldwide.

Professor Heck also shared progress in digitizing the Canadian soil thin section collection, which contains approximately 10,000 soil thin sections and core blocks collected since the 1960s and representing major soil types across Canada. He presented a high-throughput imaging system developed by his team that combines visible light, ultraviolet fluorescence, and polarized light imaging. Automated image processing tools have been used to improve efficiency and data quality, and the collection has been made available through an open-access platform to support research, education, and modeling applications.

Following the presentation, Professor Heck exchanged views with laboratory researchers on topics including standards for soil thin section digitization, artificial intelligence applications in micromorphological analysis, and the characterization of deep soil features. Participants noted that the seminar provided valuable insights into international developments in soil micromorphology digitization and offered new ideas for future research on soil structure and processes.