Professor James A. Field is the new assistant dean, graduate education at the University of Arizona College of Engineering, effective October 1. Field brings extensive experience as an educator, adviser, researcher and administrator to his role overseeing and expanding the College’s graduate studies program.

“I cherish this opportunity to expand the College of Engineering master’s and doctoral programs and to further mentor and recruit graduate students,” said Field, who joined the College’s chemical and environmental engineering department in 2001 and headed it from 2009 until taking the assistant dean position.

“Our students have a great energy that I look forward to encountering on a daily basis.”

Anthony Muscat, professor of chemical and environmental engineering, succeeds Field as ChEE department chair.

Field has advised more than 75 MS, PhD and postdoctoral ChEE students and will continue student advising.

Field, who spent 15 years living in the Netherlands, is an internationally known expert in anaerobic bioconversion of inorganic and organic pollutants and has published more than 220 articles in professional research journals. He has received more than $3.3 million in funding for his UA research from several private and federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“As a professor, researcher and mentor to students in our department of chemical and environmental engineering for almost 15 years, Jim has a keen insight into the challenges and changing landscape of graduate engineering education,” said Jeff Goldberg, dean of the UA College of Engineering. “His experience in training and recruiting students not just in the United States but abroad will boost our efforts to grow and diversify the graduate student body.”

Field’s major goals are to increase enrollment in the College’s MS and PhD programs and to expand graduate student funding opportunities such as scholarships, assistantships and fellowships. In efforts to recruit more students from other countries, he draws from experience leading more than a dozen conferences and workshops for faculty and graduate students at universities in Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua and elsewhere. Through such activities, he has successfully recruited several graduate students to the UA over the years.

Field was named a UA Honors Professor in 2013-2014 and was a Fulbright Specialist in 2011. He is a member of the executive committee of the UA Superfund Basic Research Program and director of the UA Dean Carter Binational Center for Environmental Health Sciences.

He earned his BS and MS degrees in agronomy from Virginia Tech in 1981 and 1983, respectively, and his PhD in environmental technology in 1989 from Wageningen University, in the Netherlands, where he also served on the faculty from 1991 to 2000.

Field will work hard to bring more engineering alumni back to campus to inspire graduate students, he said, and to establish new professional development opportunities, such as technical writing and communications workshops, that benefit all engineering graduate students.

Reflecting on his time in ChEE, Field expressed pride in the achievements of fellow faculty.

“While I was department head, two faculty members received University Distinguished Professorships back-to-back. I am privileged to have worked with such a highly honored group of educators and scholars.”

As assistant dean, Field also chairs the College’s Graduate Studies Committee and is the College’s representative on the UA Graduate Council.

When not administering graduate programs, recruiting, teaching, serving on committees and conducting research, Field likes to hike the trails of Tucson and looks forward to organizing hikes for UA engineering graduate students.