Harry W. Janes, the founding director of the Rutgers EcoComplex, was honored at a recent recognition ceremony for the role he played in the formation and development of the university’s first environmental research and extension center.
“The legacy you created in establishing the EcoComplex will live on,” said President Richard L. McCormick, who presented Janes with a plaque at the July 13 event held at the EcoComplex. “No facility, no set of activities, in the state better illustrates Rutgers’ ambition to serve the people of New Jersey and to spark the promise of this great state.”
The high-tech research center in Burlington County, dedicated April 23, 2001, fulfills Rutgers’ missions of teaching, research, and service in several ways: helping environmentally friendly businesses grow profitable; developing technologies to address the environmental issues facing New Jersey; and educating elementary and high school students on the importance of maximizing the Earth’s resources.
Janes, a professor of plant biology and plant pathology, was the principal investigator on the $5 million grant to build the facilities at the EcoComplex facilities in Bordentown – which includes six laboratories, a 120-seat auditorium, two classrooms, and a media room. Under his direction, the university built a partnership with the county Board of Freeholders to share in the operation of the facility. Janes also secured operating funds from the New Jersey Legislature.
Janes, presented with a framed portrait that will hang in the EcoComplex lobby, thanked numerous people for building the partnerships that resulted in the center, many of whom were on hand. “This is a ‘we’ kind of facility,” Janes said.
Speakers included Rod Sharp,
consulting managing director, Global Institute for Bio-Exploration, Rutgers’ Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the
Environment; Bob Simkin, Burlington County Solid Waste Coordinator; and
Bill Brown, president of Acrion Technologies, a leader in landfill gas cleanup
and the first business to inhabit the high-tech research center.
Guests also included Robert Shinn, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection from 1994 to 2002, who credited Janes with helping New Jersey become a national leader in the development of innovative environmental management approaches.
Dave Specca, the current director of the EcoComplex, told the audience that nine states have developed facilities modeled on the EcoComplex and several countries have expressed interested in learning more about the operations.