James Burger (Jim) was the cofounder of what was to become the precursor of IASIM. This hyperspectral imaging meeting was held in Umeå in the winter of 2006. Jim has since then been a leading and enthusiastic player in the organisation of the IASIM series of conferences, where he also contributed with outstanding scientific results.

Born in Richland, WA, November 17, 1953, Jim graduated from Richland High School, and earned bachelors degrees in Mathematics and Chemistry, and a master of science in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Washington, under the supervision of Prof. Bruce Kowalski. He worked for several years in research and development at Battelle NW Labs, Microsoft and Fred Hutchinson, before moving to Umeå. There he got a PhD on Biomass Technology and Chemistry at the Swedish Agricultural University.

After obtaining his PhD (2006), he started an imaging consulting company (BurgerMetrics, SIA) in Riga, Latvia. In the course of this, he corresponded and worked with quite a number of groups in Europe and beyond. Jim’s contributions to NIR and hyperspectral imaging were numerous and of high quality. He was the winner of the Gerald S. Birth Award for best published work in 2006-2007.

Jim was co-vicechair of the 17th International Conference on Near Infrared Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR-2007) in Umeå and successfully organized the IASIM meeting in Jurmala, Latvia in 2012.

He passed away unexpectedly, at his home in Riga in August 2014, during the organization of the IASIM-14 meeting, which was held in Rome in December of the same year.