Ward earns top microbiology honor

FROM RICE NEWS STAFF REPORTS

Rice University microbiologist Herb Ward has been named winner of the Charles Thom Award, the top national honor for industrial microbiology, given by the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.

	HERB WARD

Ward, Rice’s Foyt Family Chair of Engineering and a professor of civil and environmental engineering and ecology and evolutionary biology, was honored for a career of outstanding academic and research contributions to the advancement of applied microbiological sciences.

The award was given at the organization’s annual meeting in New Orleans in July. Ward delivered a lecture titled “Deep Down and Dirty: Microbial Process for Subsurface Remediation.” Much of Ward’s research and publishing has focused on microbial technologies for remediation of contaminated groundwater.

During his 46-year tenure at Rice, Ward has served as a science adviser to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the departments of the Army and Air Force. He is the founding and current editor-in-chief of the international scientific journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

He was a co-author of the 2011 American Academy of Microbiology report, “Microbes and Oil Spills,” written in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon explosion to help the public and the press better understand the fate and effects of oil spills in marine systems.