Dr. Jorge Gardea-Torresdey is a Dudley Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, and a Professor of Chemistry. He joined UTEP in January of 1994. Within two years of joining UTEP as a faculty member, he became the Director of the Environmental Science and Engineering Ph.D. Program, an administrative position he held until 2003. In 2001, he became the Chair of the Chemistry Department, now Chemistry and Biochemistry. For 17 years, he guided the growth of the Department, both in research and in the expansion of program offerings. He has published over 550 papers (140 of which were published in the past six years), over 42,000 citations, and an h-index of 112. He was awarded the 2012 Piper Professor Award, UTEP’s Graduate Mentor Award in 2016, the 2009 Distinguished Scientist of the Year Award from the Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native American Scientists (SACNAS), the 2017 Great Minds in Stem Education Award, and the 2018 University of Texas System’s STARs Retention Award. In 2017, he earned the Outstanding Career Award from the Government of Mexico (CONACyT). Additionally, his work has been published and highlighted in European venues, and he has been named an Honorary Professor by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2013) and Nanjing University (2017). Finally, on 1 January 2011, he was appointed the Associate Editor of Environmental Science and Technology.