May 7th witnessed the ceremony appointing Prof. James M. Tiedje of Michigan State University, USA to the “Einstein Professorship of Chinese Academy of Sciences” in the Institute of Urban Environment (IUE). Prof. ZHU Yongguan, director of IUE, awarded the certificate to Prof. Tiedje, who afterwards delivered a speech entitled “Biology’s Greatest Frontier: Our Microbial Allies in a Sustainable World”. During his one week visit, Prof. Tiedje will conduct academic exchanges with IUE researchers.

As one of the pioneers in Modern Microbial Ecology, Prof. Tiedje has made outstanding contributions in the field of microbial dehalogenation mechanisms and respiration of halogenated organic compounds. Being elected as an academician of the American Academy of Sciences in 2003, he is a former Chairman of the American Society for Microbiology and former director of the Microbial Ecology Centre, American Science Foundation. Due to his great achievements in the microbial field, he shared the UNESCO Finlay award in 1993. So far, he has published more than 300 scientific papers, among which seven were published in Science and Nature, with a total of more than 20,000 citations.