Amanda Black is a New Zealand soil chemist who, as of 2023, is a full professor at Lincoln University. She specializes in soil health and biosecurity, and has worked on kauri dieback and integration of matauranga MÃÂori into science.
Black is of Tà «hoe, Whakatà Âhea and Te Whanau a ÃÂpanui descent. After earning a master's degree at the University of Otago, Black completed a PhD titled Bioavailability of cadmium, copper, nickel and zinc in soils treated with biosolids and metal salts at Lincoln University in 2010. Her work was supervised by Ron McLaren, Suzie Reichman, Tom Speir and Leo Condron.
Black joined the staff at Lincoln university, rising to full professor in 2022. In 2020, she was appointed co-director of the Bioprotection Aotearoa Centre of Research Excellence when it was refunded.
Black received a MÃÂori Television Matariki Award â the Te Tupu-ÃÂ-Rangi for Health and Science â in 2019. She also received the Ministry for Primary Industries Biosecurity Award for Emerging Leader in 2018. In 2021, Black was awarded a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship for the project Genomes to giants: restoring resilient soil ecosystems in kauri forests. This project aimed "to reconstruct the kauri soil ecosystem using soil DNA and integrat[e] matauranga MÃÂori of the ngÃÂhere forest, to build whakapapa of the soil." In 2024, Black was awarded Lincoln University's 2024 Critic and Conscience Award.