As California vintner Robert Mondavi once said, "When you taste a wine, you are not just tasting the fruit, you are tasting the soil. Everything in nature affects the soil."
Perhaps no one understands this statement better than Don Sparks, Distinguished Professor of Soil Science and chair of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. Sparks is internationally recognized for his research on soil chemistry, with particular emphasis on heavy metal and organic chemical interaction at the soil/water interface. 
His research team employs state-of-the-art spectroscopic and microscopic techniques to study soil chemical speciation and reaction mechanisms.
His expertise in this area has made Sparks a leading authority on the remediation of contaminated soils. He has worked with a number of industrial and governmental partners, including the DuPont Company and the U.S. Department of Energy, to develop methods of removing contaminants from industrial waste sites and minimizing the spread of pollutants into groundwater.
As department chair, Sparks has been instrumental in building the environmental soil science program in the College, which now includes seven faculty and extension specialists. "We now have a world-class program that attracts students, postdocs, and visiting scholars from all over the United States and abroad," Sparks says.
Teaching is a high priority for Sparks. In addition to mentoring a large group of graduate students and postdoctoral research associates, Sparks has routinely involved undergraduate students in his research. His students have been frequent recipients of high honors. For example, two recent Ph.D. students, Cristian P. Schulthess and Scott E. Fendorf, each received the Emil Truog Award from the Soil Science Society of America for the most outstanding dissertation in the soil sciences. Sparks offers a professional development seminar to graduate students that features outside speakers on topics such as manuscript writing, applying for grants, job interviewing, and other skills to assist them in their careers. He is also the author of two widely adopted textbooks.
In 1996, Sparks received the University of Delaware's highest honor, the Francis Alison Award, which recognizes distinguished scholarship, professional achievement, and dedication to students.