USA - Full Circle
The roots
RafikiArdhi begain in gardening and landscaping, developing an early connection to the land that would grow into environmental research published in international journals. Along the way, experiences such as encountering Hopi culture broadened our understanding of the relationships between people, land and place. These connections continue to shape our work. Within the first year of returning to the United States, we began exploring soil multifunctionality and resilience on Indigenous lands in the American Southwest (preprint). The findings have challenged how we think about environmental systems, bringing scientific questions about soil organisation and resilience into conversation with broader ethical questions about how we understand and care for the land.
Fresh perspective
Returning to the United States has connected the landscapes where our story began with the international research that followed. We bring experiences from across the world back to local places, bridging scientific inquiry with the everyday realities of working on the land.
This return has also opened new opportunities to contribute to the scientific community. RafikiArdhi team members have joined environmental journal editorial boards (editorial committee) and taken on guest-editing roles for open-access applied science research (Applied Sciences). Through our university associations, we also review manuscripts and mentor postgraduate students, supporting the development of early-career researchers.
Science is part of a wider landscape of work and community. In places such as Colorado’s mountain towns, the people who maintain and shape the landscape do not always have the means to live in the communities where they work. Connecting environmental knowledge with local needs means recognising these realities, too.
Full circle
Building an independent research company gives us the freedom to pursue questions, push conceptual boundaries, and share knowledge beyond traditional academic structures. It also gives us the opportunity to reconnect scientific thinking with the practical work that started RafikiArdhi.
That connection takes different forms. We develop research tools that make scientific methods more transparent and accessible, while our homeowner tools help people make informed decisions about gardens, soil and landscaping. We can pursue complex environmental questions while also supporting the everyday work of caring for the land.
For us, bringing science home means more than returning to the United States. It means connecting international research with local work, supporting the next generation of scientists and making environmental knowledge useful beyond academia, right in your own backyard.
The job is done. The supervisor remains on site.
