The meeting will take advantage of the fact that the field of soil science is expanding because of the growing interest in food security and safety as well as environmental quality. In addition, many state-of-the-art emerging technologies being developed in other fields are available to adapt to soil science, creating an explosion of information and knowledge in the many fields of soil science. The 20th WCSS will provide an opportunity to examine the changes in soil science and to envision new perspectives for basic and applied soil research.