James J. Valdes, Ph.D
Senior Research Fellow

Dr. James J. Valdes received his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Texas Christian University in 1979 and was a postdoctoral fellow in neurotoxicology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

His areas of research interest are biotechnology and neuroscience. He initiated a biosensor program at the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) and chaired the first four International Conferences on Biosensors. More recently, he has established a scale-up bioprocess engineering capability at ECBC with joint ventures and partnerships with academia and industry, and ran the Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery (TGER) program, deploying to Iraq in 2008 with two TGER prototypes to field test this new waste-to-energy technology.

Dr. Valdes organized and co-chaired the 1993 and 1995 Keystone Symposia on Environmental Biotechnology, as well as the 2002 NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Toxicogenomics and Proteomics. He serves on a number of NATO, academic and Department of Defense panels, and is a member of the Boards of Directors of the International Society for Environmental Biotechnology and the Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource (ASTAR) program. ASTAR develops science and technology educational programs and certification for the Nation's senior judiciary.

In 1990, Dr. Valdes was appointed Scientific Advisor for Biotechnology, a Senior Technologist position, in recognition of his career achievements in biotechnology research. In this capacity, he serves as the senior biological scientist and advisor to the Command Group, U.S. Army RDECOM. Prior to this assignment, Dr. Valdes served as Acting Chief, Biotechnology Division and as a Research Pharmacologist and Research Physical Scientist at the ECBC.

His awards and recognition include winning the Army Research and Development Achievement Award in 1984 and 1987, the Army Materiel Command's Ten Best Personnel Award in 1988, the Baltimore Federal Executive Board Silver Award for Excellence in Federal Career in 1990, a commendation for Outstanding Research Accomplishments at the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Army Science Conference (ASC), and bronze medals for the Best Paper at the 2002 and 2008 ASC meetings. He also received the Senior Executive Service Presidential Rank Award in 2003 and 2009, which were presented to him by the Secretary of the Army and the Vice Chief of Army Staff on behalf of the President.

Dr. Valdes is adjunct Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Texas at San Antonio, adjunct Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland, and is Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Harford Community College. He was Distinguished Visiting Scientist for the Agency for Defense Development, Republic of Korea, in 1987 and 1994, and is a National Research Council post-doctoral fellow advisor and DOD SMART Program graduate advisor.

Dr. Valdes is the author of more than 120 refereed scientific journal articles and 55 technical reports, and has given more than 300 presentations to international scientific professional groups. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he is married to Dr. Erica Valdes and has two children.