Dr James (Jim) Mitchell, a National Academy of Engineering Member and Bell Labs Research Fellow, retired in 2001 as Vice President of Materials Research at Lucent Bell Labs, Murray hill, NJ. Mitchell is recognized for developing high reliability quantitative characterization methods which laid the foundation for the analytical chemistry of optical waveguide technology. His x-ray fluorescence techniques first extended the use of this method for the analysis of ppb levels of elements. He received with collaborators the IR-100 Award in 1982 for developing the first laser intracavity spectrometer for practical quantitative analysis. He and collaborators conceptualized and constructed the first on-demand electrochemical generator for producing hazardous CVD reagents used in the manufacture of electronic devices. This R&D 100 Award winning invention was produced commercially. In 1989, he was inducted into the materials engineering section of the National Academy of Engineering. Dr Mitchell’s second career involves academia, where he is the David and Lucille Packard Professor of Materials Science at Howard University .At Howard,he also is the Director of the CREST Nanomaterials Characterization Science Center, where his group innovates methods for the synthesis and characterization of ultra pure biocompatible nanomaterials for research and technological applications.