In Respectful Memory

1. John McColl Bremner 1922 - 2007 In Respectful Memory

2. John McColl Bremner A heritage for Understanding Soil Nitrogen, Organic Matter and Biomass by John Pesek

3. John M. Bremner Impact of Jack Bremner’s research and publications on our knowledge about soil organic matter, nitrogen and biomass and their effects in Iowa

4. Career in Short • Born January 22, 1922, Dumbarton, Scot. • Died July 27, 2007, Palm Desert, Calif. • B. S., Pure Science, Univ. Glasgow, 1944 • Ph.D., Chemistry, London Univ. 1948 • D.Sc., Soil Chem. London Univ. 1959 • D.Sc., Honorary, Univ. of Glasgow 1987 • Rothamsted Expt. Station, 1945-1959 • Iowa State University, 1959-retirement

5. Salient Career Features N transformations at Rothamsted S transformations at Iowa State Analytical methods published; SSSA Mono. Global research based on the above Expert in soil N, S and P Helped inspire soil enzymology at ISU Profuse publications with co-workers National Academy of Science Member 1984

6. Why Iowa State? • The 1891 Soil Chemistry course included “… mechanical and chemical sources of available nitrogen, the ‘nitrogen gatherers, nitrification, reduction of nitrates, losses of nitrogen, and its conservation on the farm.” • Soil bacteriology included in Agronomy curriculum from the start in 1902.

7. Why Iowa State? continued • First two doctorates conferred on Charles Davis and Paul Emerson in Agronomy were in soil bacteriology; the second and third from Iowa State College in 1917. • There have been one or more state or federal soil bacteriologists on our faculty since; P.E. Brown, A.G. Norman, F.E. Clark, W. V. Bartholomew, D.T. Parker, L.R. Frederick.

8. In His Own Words (IHOW) In the Chemistry Department at Rothamsted he was “to initiate a program of research to characterize the organic complexes in soil” in 1945. He added: “none of the techniques available to organic chemists at that time were likely to be of significant value if applied to the humic acids and other complex organic materials in soils.”

9. IHOW; paper chromatography At the onset of paper chromatography: “no equipment for paper chromatography was available when I started….” He rigged apparatus of “drain pipes and long sections of glass tubing modified to serve as troughs for the organic solvents and hold the large sheets of Whatman filter paper sheets in place.

10. IHOW; enter Mary Williams The sheets of filter paper were too large to handle alone and he had no assistant. His solution: “I had … a very talented girl friend, Mary Williams … in the Microbiology Department …, and she provided valuable assistance ….” He met her playing tennis and field hockey on Rothamsted teams; they married in 1950; all was well.

11. IHOW; success and difficulty He credited publications on estimation of “amino acids and amino sugars in soils and humic acids” leading to four months with Wolfgang Flaig at Braunschweig, W.G., and time at other European labs. Afflicted with “stammer” since he was five, he wrote, “it has always disappeared during party time.”

12. IHOW; he had to teach Facing a new course and system, no teaching experience and no text he emulated his “best teacher” who used “a lot of handouts and visuals”. Looking back, he concluded: “I probably distributed too much material at each lecture because my students had exceptionally large notebooks at the end of the course.

13. IHOW; mentoring His brother, Alex, was an informal mentor steering him into a degree program in chemistry instead of English and History, and also encouraged Jack to compete for scholarships at the University of Glasgow. He wrote: “I had no mentor when working towards a Ph.D. degree from the University of London because mentoring during this degree was rare in Britain ….”

14. IHOW; mentor substitutes Role models replaced lack of mentors, and he wrote: “… I had great admiration and respect for scientists who developed techniques that permitted breakthroughs in research or wrote with great grace and clarity, and I encouraged my graduate students to read papers by these scientists.”

15. IHOW; first substitute “I recall that when the first really large cash award for scientific writing was created, it was given to G. Evelyn Hutchinson, the author I had been recommending to my graduate students for the high quality of his articles.”

16. IHOW; second substitute About another role model: “… I came across the publications of Donald D. Van Slyke, who developed numerous methods for blood analysis … at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. I greatly admired his work because he subjected the methods he developed to very rigorous tests for both accuracy and specificity and was an exceptionally thorough researcher.”

17. IHOW; his students “I obtained a great deal of satisfaction from watching the development of my graduate students during their M. S. and Ph. D. research and it was a real pleasure for me to follow the achievements of these students since leaving ISU.”

18. IHOW; pride in graduates There was no doubt in his pride in them because: “Among these were deans, directors of research centers or heads of departments at universities, several have served as presidents of the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America, and many received major research awards from these societies.”

19. What Others Wrote (WOW) J.P. Quirk wrote: “At the stage when he commenced these studies in the mid-forties, our knowledge of organic matter was very poor indeed. As a result of his work on the extraction of organic matter, its composition and its macro-molecular properties we now have a deeper appreciation of the attributes of soil -

20. WOW, Quirk Cont’d “organic matter and the profound role it has in influencing soil fertility. This research formed an essential back ground to his later studies concerned more particularly with organic matter as a substrate for micro-organism attack in relation to nutrient cycles.”

21. WOW, from Rothamsted D.S. Jenkinson agreed Bremner laid the foundations for his work; and pointed to identifying and then measuring alpha amino acid nitrogen, amino sugar nitrogen and fixed ammonium nitrogen in soil. Twenty-five years after Jack left he wrote: “His style of work, with its drive, enthusiasm and emphasis on careful analytical work, is still part of Rothamsted folk-lore.”

22. WOW; as an analyst Victor Kilmer commented: “Jack Bremner is the soils man’s [sic] Bureau of Standards.” F.J. Stevenson wrote: “His pioneering research on [nitrogen and sulfur transformations in soil] has revolutionized current thinking on the nature, origin, and source of nitrogen and sulfur constituents in the atmosphere.”

23. WOW; as a soil scientist Quirk summarized: “Dr. Bremner’s contribution in any one of these areas would place him amongst the world’s leading soil scientists and indeed his total achievement must place him amongst a handful of distinguished soil scientists in this century.”

24. Teaching and Mentoring at ISU • Developed and taught advanced soil biochemistry during his whole career • Mentored 22 students in 23 degrees (six M. S. and seventeen Ph. D.) • The first was James A. Silva in 1964; the last was Gregory W. McCarty in 1989 who completed the M. S. (1985) and Ph. D. • All learned to write solid research papers

25. Research Funding • Began career at ISU when appropriated funding was the norm • Records of external funding before 1980 have been discarded • Since then he brought in at least $1.5 million • Claimed funds from Regional Project, NE-146, “Gains, losses and management of soil nitrogen” for six years

26. OPS; worked with visiting scholars Attracted international scholars to ISU from: Australia Malaysia China Pakistan England Portugal Finland Russia Germany Scotland Japan Sweden India Switzerland

27. OPS; world travels International Atomic Energy Association, Yugo. Pontifical Academy of Sciences, The Vatican University of Adelaide University of Costa Rica University of London University of New England University of Queensland University of Western Australia University of the West Indies

28. Outreach and Professional Service (OPS) • Assoc. Ed., Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. Proc. • Reg. Ed., Soil Biology and Biochemistry • Consult. Ed., Agrochimica • Consult. Ed., Journal of Soil Science • Ed. Bd., Amer. Soc. Agronomy Mono., Nitrogen in Agricultural Soils

29. OPS; evaluator and reviewer • National Science Foundation • Research Applied to National Needs • Energy Research and Development Adm. • Environmental Protection Agency • United States Department of Agriculture • United States Department of Energy • United States National Academy of Sciences

30. OPS; paper reviewing and editing • Analytical Biochemistry • Analytical Chemistry • Environmental Science and Technology • Geophysical Research Letters • Journal of Geophysical Research • Nature • Science • Tellus

31. Helping solve mundane problems • New N fertilizers with TVA • Isotope N analyses to assess sources of surface water contaminants • Cultivation effect on N distribution • Index of soil N availability to crops • Urea hydrolysis and its significance in use • Inhibition of urease action in soil

32. Helping solve mundane problems • Urea’s effect on seed germination • Phytotoxicity of urea in foliar application • Effect of herbicides on urea hydrolysis • Effect of pesticides on N transformations • Inhibiting nitrification of ammonium (patent) • Sulfur loss from manure application

33. Bremner heritage to soil science and ISU • Over 300 refereed papers or book chapters • Methods of analyses for N compounds • One patent relating to nitrification • Three remarkable faculty members at ISU Dennis Keeney Ali Tabatabai Alfred Blackmer

34. Dennis Keeney Keeney was an early graduate student, and after a brilliant career at the University of Wisconsin he returned to ISU as the first director of the Leopold Center for Sustain-able Agriculture; thus set its course He proposed “on-farm testing” in an address to the First International Crop Science Congress in 1992.

35. Ali Tabatabai Tabatabai was an associate working with Jack after completing doctoral study and brought skills in sulfur research to accelerate the sulfur work at ISU He initiated his own formal project on the study of enzymes in soils and became globally recognized as a leader in soil enzymology.

36. Alfred Blackmer Blackmer continued as a member of the faculty after completing doctoral study with Jack, and was committed to help farmers make better decisions with regard to use of fertilizer, especially nitrogen, on farms, and to the environment He made “on-farm testing” in direct active cooperation with farmers an accepted and widely adopted practice in soils research

37. In retrospect—what if…? • There were only six Bremner children • Alex had not encouraged him to chemistry • There was no scholarship at Glasgow Univ. • He’d known more about soil organic matter • And did not accept Rothamsted offer • Had not played tennis and field hockey • Had not encountered Mary Williams • He was not nominated for Rockefeller travel

38. In retrospect—what if…? • He had not spent five months at ISU • His family had not liked it in Iowa and US • W.H. Pierre had not persisted in employing him • We had no spectrometry capabilities at ISU • Art Edwards was not on the ISU faculty • Ali Tabatabai had not stayed at ISU • There were no Soil Science Monographs • He chose not to travel abroad

39. Final comment • Jack’s family and he could make only one choice at a time, and it is the unique series of choices and events in his lifetime that placed him among the most prominent of soil scientists, and whose legacy not only encompasses our knowledge of soil organic matter and nitrogen chemistry, but in several other dimensions of soils and our profession. I think we are fortunate that we lived and worked with Jack for several decades.

40. Read more about Jack Bremner Archives for John M. Bremner May be found at: http://www.ag.iastate. edu/stories/archives 2008spring/bremner.php

41. Archiving your presentation If you are willing to archive your paper about Jack, send the electronic version to me. jpesek@iastate.edu It will be on the web site of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a hard copy in the University Archives.

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