In Memoriam: John Cairns Jr. (1923–2017)
Ken Dickson and Tom Waller, University of North Texas; Richard Sparks, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign; and Guy Lanza, State University of New York
 Professor John Cairns Jr. passed peacefully at home on 5
November 2017 in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, not far from his
beloved Virginia Tech. Dr. Cairns will be remembered as a
husband, father and grandfather, distinguished professor
and academic mentor, ecological pioneer, prolific author,
champion of social consciousness and sustainability, flyfishing
enthusiast, avid hiker, experienced folk dancer and
proud United States Navy veteran of World War II.
Dr. Cairns received his Ph.D. and M.S. from the University of
Pennsylvania. He was Curator of Limnology at the Academy
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for 18 years until 1966 and
professor of zoology at the University of Kansas for a short
time before joining the faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University (Virginia Tech) in 1968.
His enthusiasm for science writing, teaching and research
was boundless. He wrote 1,750 publications and 65 books. He
taught 20 university courses on protozoology, limnology,
ecotoxicology, restoration ecology, ethics in science, hazard
evaluation and ecosystem risk analysis. He chaired or cochaired
more than 70 graduate committees and spent every summer
teaching at either the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory or
the University of Michigan Biological Station. Dr. Cairns retired
from Virginia Tech in 1995 as Director of the University Center for
Environmental and Hazardous Materials Studies.
His assistant, Darla Donald, chronicles the many national and
international honors and outstanding contributions reflecting
Dr. Cairns’ considerable influence on U.S. environmental policy
and ecological research around the world.
Among the many honors, he served on 18 U.S. National Research
Council committees (two as chair) and 14 science editorial
boards. In 1991, he was named to the U.S. National Academy of
Sciences and received the Virginia Lifetime Achievement in
Science Award. He served on the Science Advisory Boards of
the International Joint Commission (United States and Canada)
and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and was
elected a foreign member of the Linnean Society of London. He
was recipient of the U.S. Presidential Commendation for
Environmental Activities, the Superior Achievement Award
from USEPA and the Distinguished Science Award from the
American Institute of Biological Sciences. He was recognized
as a Fellow with the Ecological Society of America. He
received the SETAC Founders Award in 1981 and was named a SETAC Emeritus Member for his sustained and distinguished contributions to the society.
Dr. Cairns lived a full life dedicated to the science of solving
environmental problems. Here we share memories of our
time as the first students he mentored so long ago.
Ken Dickson
I met Dr. Cairns for the first time in the spring of
1968 as a master’s student in the biology department at the
University of North Texas. Inspired by his enthusiasm and depth
of knowledge, I was excited by the invitation to join his Ph.D.
graduate program at the University of Kansas (KU) in the fall,
beginning with three months of summer research at the University
of Michigan’s Biological Station. It was at the Biological Station
that I realized Dr. Cairns was a truly exceptional person. He took
me under his wing and taught me how to fly fish (he loved trout
fishing), how to identify and count protozoa, how to use artificial
substrates, how to analyze data, how to write grant proposals
and how to write research publications.
In the fall, I took my young family not to KU but instead to
Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. When I arrived, I found
the new Biology Building at Virginia Tech was not ready for Dr.
Cairns’ program. Undeterred, Dr. Cairns and five graduate
students, myself included, convened our first day of class in
one big room in the Forestry Building. We had no
laboratories, equipment or resources other than student
stipends and Dr. Cairns’ confidence and vision. During that
first day of class, Dr. Cairns and his team framed the fledgling
research program and committed to writing grant proposals.
By the spring of 1969, we had several funded research
proposals. Dr. Cairns taught us to manage the grants, work
with sponsors, write research reports and publish the results.
The program and his students were never in doubt. Dr. Cairns
jump-started my career and the careers of many more
students to follow at Virginia Tech. He was a fabulous mentor.
He unselfishly shared his contacts and referred research opportunities to his students. I miss him and will be forever
grateful for his support and guidance.
Tom Waller
My first introduction to Dr. Cairns was through his
published research while working on my master’s degree at
Pittsburg State University. Several correspondences led to an
invitation to visit KU and soon thereafter to a research position at
the university. My work at KU involved remotely measuring the
movement patterns of fish before, during and after exposure to
certain toxicants. Dr. Cairns theorized that if the fish changed
their movement patterns when exposed to toxicants, then we
might be able to monitor that behavior as an early warning
system for the presence of toxic surface-water conditions.
During my second semester at KU, Dr. Cairns announced his
decision to join the faculty at Virginia Tech. That same evening
at home with my wife, we opened our Rand McNally road atlas
and searched for Blacksburg. That summer of 1968, we packed
our few belongings and young son into a Volkswagen bug and
drove to Virginia. Together with new colleagues and now
lifelong friends—Ken, Richard and Guy—I spent my first year in
one big room writing grant proposals. One of the funded
proposals was work I had started at KU; all we needed was
laboratory space to carry out the research. During my second
year, Dr. Cairns taught me how to build a functioning research
laboratory. For many years thereafter, a lot of good ecotoxicological
science was reported in that research laboratory, born
from the many opportunities that Dr. Cairns offered to me. I
earned a Ph.D. and gained lifelong friendships with my fellow
graduates of that first Ph.D. program at Virginia Tech.
Richard (Rip) Sparks
My first introduction to Dr. Cairns was
his limnology course at KU. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Cairns
agreed to be the instructor in charge of my MS program at KU
and later invited me to join him at Virginia Tech as a Ph.D.
candidate in 1968.
That first year together in one big room in the Forestry Building
at Virginia Tech with Dr. Cairns was just as Ken and Tom
described. It was memorable. We studied a range of environmental
topics and postulated solutions to unanswered questions.
By the second year and with research funding secured, we turned
much of that single big room into a wet laboratory. We rarely left
that room. When Dr. Cairns or research sponsors asked for
progress reports, we could look up from our desks at the fish in
their test aquaria and respond with observations instantly. Dr.
Cairns’ desk was in that room, too. I recall clearly the evolution of
Dr. Cairns’ early ideas on chemical interactions with aquatic life
and ecosystems, and his many conversations on these topics with
potential research sponsors in U.S. federal agencies, research
organizations and private companies. We couldn’t avoid it—
there was no way not to hear Dr. Cairns’ end of some of the
telephone conversations with sponsors!
Dr. Cairns was an inspiring mentor who led by example. I
have tried to model my own relationships with students after
Dr. Cairns’ generosity and collegiality toward us. He believed
that understanding and solving environmental problems
required the collaboration of a team of technical disciplines.
Dr. Cairns strongly urged his students to take at least
introductory-level courses in civil engineering, chemistry
and economics, and to gain as much varied experience as
possible, including helping with each other’s graduate
projects. I’ve been able to talk to engineers, planners and
economists ever since; it has made a huge difference in a
career dedicated to environmental policy.
Guy Lanza
I joined Dr. Cairns and his research laboratory
group—Ken, Tom, Rip and Jean Ruthven—at Virginia Tech in
1969, a year after the program was founded in one room of
the Forestry Building. After several years working on
antiparasitic drug development at a research institute, I was
concerned that my background and experience was quite a
bit different than those of the other students and somewhat
removed from the basic aquatic ecology background that
brought the group together. What mattered to Dr. Cairns,
however, was a good work ethic and a desire to make a
contribution to environmental protection and conservation.
He was a truly great mentor and friend who guided, but did
not dictate, the research conducted by his students at Virginia
Tech. He balanced technical guidance with encouragement
and a freedom of thought that fostered research creativity.
The wallpaper on my iPhone is a photograph of the red
fluorescent diatoms I used in my Ph.D. research under Dr.
Cairns’ supervision. It’s a very special reminder for me of
those heady days of the 1970s that marked the beginning of
the U.S. environmental movement: A time when a very special
man encouraged his students to learn and contribute to the
emergence of ecological science, and he showed us by example
how research and science could make a difference in life.
Authors’ contact information: Kenneth.Dickson@unt.edu, Tom.Waller@unt.edu, rsparks@illinois.edu and glanza40@gmail.com
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