Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Docs » James Seiber
James Seiber
headline bar

June 8, 2023
 
 
            SUBJECT:    Memorial Statement for Dr. James Seiber
 
                     TO:     Albany Location Personnel
 
                 FROM:    Bill Orts
                                Acting Center Director, WRRC

Wally Yokoyama provided this statement in memory of James Seiber, WRRC Center Director from 1998 – 2010.

In Memorium
Jim Seiber
1940 - 2023

 

James N. Seiber, Jim, born in 1940, died leaving behind a long list of accomplishments, friends and colleagues. He began his studies, earning a B.S. in Physics at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky. He continued with an M.S. in Chemistry at Arizona State and obtained his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at Utah State University under the supervision of Frank Stermitz. He worked at Dow Chemical in Michigan and California before joining the University of California at Davis faculty in 1969, eventually becoming Professor of Environmental Toxicology. He led the Departments of Environmental Toxicology and Food Science and served as Associate Dean for Research for the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES). His significant and impressive research on pesticides, their use, analysis and environmental impact led to over 280 publications, 3 ACS Symposium Series books, numerous presentations as part of AGFD and other technical symposia and participation on expert committees around the world. Dr. Seiber served as a leading expert for the World Health Organization addressing the impact of pesticides on the health of both youths and adults. He served as Editor of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (1999-2014) successfully stewarding it into one of the most respected scientific journals in the field. Along with his academic efforts at UC Davis, Jim led the Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno and served as Director of the USDA Western Regional Research Center from 1998-2010. Jim and his wife Rita have three sons, Chuck, Chris, and Kenny. Jim received a long list of awards reflecting the impact of his work, including – Fellow of ACS Agrochemicals Division (1988), AGFD Fellow (2006), ACS Fellow (2010), AAAS Fellow (2013), Kenneth A. Spencer Award (2012), USDA Sterling B. Hendricks Memorial Lecture (2018) and the CA&ES Award of Distinction (2018). He served on the UC Davis Foundation Board of Trustees and funded the James and Rita Seiber Fellowship for Innovation in International Agricultural Research and the James and Rita Seiber International Graduate Student Award and the James and Rita Seiber Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry Fellowship. He is remembered as an optimistic, kind and thoughtful friend, mentor and colleague. His many co-workers, collaborators and friends at ARS miss him and extend condolences to his family.