Jim Field Celebrated for Bioremediation Work and Mentorship
Colleagues and students honor the CHEE professor emeritus for research contributions and collaborations.
Jim Field, CHEE professor emeritus at the University of Arizona, continues to stack up honors worldwide for his decades-long work in environmental remediation and biotechnology.
“All of my research to develop and implement environmental biotechnologies has required an international approach,” said Field. “I am most proud of the fact that many of my former graduate students and postdocs went on to have successful careers as university professors.”
At fall 2023 symposiums in the Netherlands and Mexico, more than 100 colleagues and former students paid tribute not only to Field’s bioremediation advancements, including for hazardous compounds left behind from military explosives, but also they spoke of his commitment to collaboration and the enduring place he holds in their lives.
“My cooperation with Jim was exceptional from the first day I met him in October 1983,” said Gatze Lettinga, professor emeritus at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Field’s PhD adviser. “He was the first and the last American who wanted to communicate [with me] in Dutch,” said the 88-year-old in Delft, The Netherlands, at the gathering dubbed a “Jimposium.”
Read more about Field's accolades here.