James M. Tiedje

James M. Tiedje is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University, and was Director of the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology for 30 years. His contributions have been on microbial ecology, physiology and diversity, especially regarding the nitrogen cycle, biodegradation of pollutants and on the use of genomics and metagenomics to understand speciation, community structure and functions. 

He served as Editor-in-Chief of Applied and Environmental Microbiology and Editor of Microbial and Molecular Biology Reviews and mBio. He served on the Board on Life Sciences of the National Research Council, EPA’s Science Advisory Panel and on DOE’s Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee. He was President of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the International Society of Microbial Ecology (ISME). He is Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, the Ecological Society of America, the Soil Science Society of America, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received is Ph.D. from Cornell University.