Kinetics, mechanisms, and a legacy of innovation: The historic and continued contributions of Donald L. Sparks

Scott Fendorf

Earth System Science Department, Stanford University, USA

fendorf@stanford.edu

Professor Donald L. Sparks is far more than a preeminent scholar. He is selfless, dedicated, innovative, and a consummate statesman. His advising and mentoring are truly remarkable and may be best illustrated by the statistics of his former students and post-docs. Prof. Sparks has graduated more than 65 Ph.D. students and mentored 30+ post-docs. Of his students and post-docs, more than 20 are faculty members, 5 are leaders in the industrial community, and 3 others are renown senior/distinguished scientists at national laboratories.

His research has contributed widely and deeply to our understanding of processes related to environmental quality, and his record illustrates both his productivity and impact: 3 books, 12 edited books and nearly one-hundred volumes of Advances in Agronomy (a leading monogram in soil and agriculture), ~60 book chapters, and ~250 research papers having >10,000 citations (discounting his books and book chapters).His research program is recognized as one of the World’s finest in soil science. Further, his text books have been instrumental in advancing soil and environmental science at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. In his early work, Prof. Sparks was one of the pioneers of chemical kinetics, illuminating and quantifying the rapid rate of ion adsorption on mineral surfaces. He help bring spectroscopic means for defining the speciation and reaction networks of metal ions to the environmental sciences. He has made seminal contributions in neoformation of heavy metal bearing clays, identifying a novel mechanism by which metal ions promote clay mineral dissolution and formation of metal hosting layer double hydroxides. Further, his group has demonstrated the use of micro-spectroscopic approaches for characterizing metal speciation and phase identification in soils, and most recently helped to elucidate the complexity of soil organic matter as layered assemblages on mineral surfaces.

Beyond his research and advising/mentoring, Prof. Sparks’ is a prominent leader in the scientific community, playing a vital role in several societies. He has served as president for both the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) and the International Union of Soil Scientist (IUSS). Given his national and international leadership, coupled with his scholarship, he was asked to lead the U.S. National Academy of Science’s standing committee on Soil Science. He has also played an important role within the American Society of Agronomy, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Chemical Society. Moreover, he has been transformative at the University of Delaware, having arguably built a department and now the Environmental Institute, which he presently directs.

His accomplishments, humble demeanor, and tireless work in scholarly pursuits and scientific advancement are awe-inspiring. Having graduate from his program more than 26 years ago, one of my greatest privileges is to call him my friend and mentor.