2008 Joint Annual Meeting (5-9 Oct. 2008): Jack Bremner, One of a Kind.

Abstract Bremner symposium I do not claim to know Jack as well as many, including of course Mary and the children. My view of Jack comes from my association as a student, postdoc, professional colleague and friend. One had to work with Jack to appreciate his devotion to the science and his attention to minutia in research data gathering and writing. What made Jack such a great scientist? Love of life, attention to detail, an ever inquisitive mind, a way of getting along with students and postdocs while still getting the best from them, love of family and a wide range of interests. I have wonderful memories of a time that is hard to imagine today. We gather here to share those times and the contributions Jack made to science. He, like many soil scientists of his era, worked on the basics in an emerging field that had to be understood before soil biochemistry could advance to the level is has now reached. As Champ Tanner once said at a Univ of Wisconsin Soils faculty meeting “all the eccentrics are gone”. Today’s students and young faculty would do well to study Jack Bremner, what he stood for and his work ethic, and to appreciate more why we gather today in his memory. His legacy will be etched in the annals of nitrogen research forever.