Editor’s Note

It is with great pleasure that I introduce our Invited Paper for this issue, “Environmental Biotechnology in Water and Wastewater Treatment,” authored by Dr. Bruce E. Rittmann. This manuscript is based on the lecture Bruce delivered when he received the Simon Freese Award from EWRI-ASCE in 2009. It presents a useful summary and review of the importance and applications of environmental biotechnology in water and wastewater treatment. It is simply and elegantly written, understandable to readers with diverse backgrounds.

Dr. Rittmann is one of the outstanding scholars in the field of environmental engineering. He is presently Regents’ Professor of Environmental Engineering and Director of the Center for Environmental Biotechnology at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the scientific and engineering fundamentals needed to “manage microbial communities to provide services to society.” He is most widely recognized for his research on biofilm processes, mathematical modeling, and applying tools from molecular biology to understand microbial communities. Dr. Rittmann is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences. Dr. Rittmann was awarded the first Clarke Prize for Outstanding Achievements in Water Science and Technology from the National Water Research Institute. He previously won the Walter Huber Research Prize, and as noted above, the Simon Freese Award from ASCE. Dr. Rittmann is on the List of Most Highly Cited Researchers of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and has published over 420 journal articles, books, and book chapters. Together with Dr. Perry McCarty, Dr. Rittmann authored the textbook Environmental Biotechnology: Principles and Applications (McGraw-Hill Book Co.), which was released in 2001 and is translated into Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

We hope you enjoy reading this manuscript.