Gary Banuelos, 1979 German, was recently selected as “USDA Pac West Senior Scientist of the Year" for his work on using phytoremediation to clean-up contaminated soils. Earlier in 1992, he was selected as "USDA Early Career Scientist of the Year." After earning his doctorate in plant nutrition from Hohenhiem/Tuebingen Universities in Germany, he worked on developing "green technologies" for remediating contaminated soils and waters worldwide. In addition, he lectures at the University of Zürich in Switzerland, University of Santiago in Chile and at USTC Suzhou in China.