Dr. James Tiedje

Dr. Tiedje is University Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and of Crop and Soil Sciences, and is Director of the Center for Microbial Ecology, one of the original NSF-funded Science and Technology Centers. His B.S. degree is from Iowa State University and his M.S. and Ph.D degrees are from Cornell University in soil microbiology with a minor in biochemistry. His research focuses on microbial ecology, physiology and diversity, especially regarding the nitrogen cycle, biodegradation of environmental pollutants and use of molecular methods to understand microbial community structure and function.  His group has discovered several microbes that live by halorespiration on chlorinated chemicals and is using genomics to better understand ecological functions, speciation and niche adaptation.  He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Applied and Environmental Microbiology and Editor of Microbial and Molecular Biology Reviews. He has over 400-refereed papers including 15 in Science, Nature and PNAS. He served on the Board on Life Sciences of the National Research Council and Co-Chaired the Committee on the New Science of Metagenomics report. He served on EPA’s Science Advisory Panel, which he Chaired in 1989-1990, and has served since 2003 on DOE’s Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee. He was President of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in 2004-2005, President of the International Society of Microbial Ecology, 1998-2001, and was Chair of the Soil Biology Division of the International Union of Soil Science, 1998-2002. He shared the 1992 Finley Prize from UNESCO for research contributions in microbiology of international significance. He is Fellow of the AAAS, the American Academy of Microbiology, the Soil Science Society of America, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.