Perspective pubs.acs.org/est
A Journey with Jerry Richard L. Valentine* Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United States
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of any institution together (tell your dean it is not just money by the way). There is no question that Jerry has enriched my life as well as many other faculty and students in so many ways. Our program owes much of its strength to his direct and indirect guidance and his ability to bring out the best in the faculty and students. And we are all grateful that he is at Iowa (famous as the birthplace of Herbert Hoover, Captain James T. Kirk, and now Jerald Schnoor).
ou have a great summary of Jerry’s research career path in the editorial by Janet Herring et al. as well as his great impact on students in the editorial by Joel Burken. I’d like to add his importance to leadership in guiding our program at Iowa as well as establishing a culture of cooperation and harmony. I have known Jerry ever since I came to the University of Iowa in 1982. In fact, actually did not meet him until after I was hired because he was on his first sabbatical at EAWAG in Switzerland. Before I agreed to come to Iowa, I called him to find out his thoughts on my potential signing on as a faculty member. We became immediate best buddies. In those early days our program was not what it is today. We were mostly lacking facilities not faculty. We had a room in the University of Iowa Water Treatment Plant with two long soapstone covered lab benches used primarily for teaching purposes and as our laboratory space (working out of card board boxes). We had one aging gas chromatograph, a pH meter, and a newly acquired spectrophotometer as the sum of our equipment. We also had a small room in the ancient Iowa City Waste Water Treatment plant for work on waste treatment. I only went into that room once as I did not have updated tetanus shots!. Jerry at that time was a mathematical modeler of notable authority (you know, one of those researchers that usually takes someone else’s data and writes a paper), working on acid rain. I’m pretty sure his sabbatical at EAWAG gave him visions of doing more bench science (we call that EAWAG envy). Thus, began Jerry’s vision to create state-of-the-art laboratories and a world class Environmental Engineering and Science Program at the University of Iowa. His approach was to build on success (his and his colleagues) and use his powers of persuasion to convince the powers that be to invest in us. He did not need a position of power to make this happen, only his personality, imagination, and energy, and faculty dedicated to his vision. Good things happened steadily. There were numerous lab remodeling projects, then a new building, and finally new facilities culminating in a Keck Foundation supported lab. Along with this came state-of-the art equipment. Jerry thought strategically and soon we were adding some of the greatest world class faculty. He guided our selection of faculty with the carefulness of a gem cutter cutting a diamond. Both science acumen and personality were critical to being offered a position. Applicants were attracted not only by our facilities and growing research reputation, but also our reputation as having a great culture of collegiality and friendliness, one that many advisors alert their new graduates to. Our still great culture did not just happen but was molded and worked at with Jerry taking the charge (who always appreciated a good party). He led by example, always fair, and always ready to help anyone unless they acted just in selfinterest. Culture by the way, is the mortar that hold the bricks © 2016 American Chemical Society
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Special Issue: Jerry Schnoor's Lasting Influence on Global and Regional Environmental Research Received: March 25, 2016 Published: July 5, 2016 6595
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b01484 Environ. Sci. Technol. 2016, 50, 6595−6595
