Guest ▼Comment The work of Walter J. Weber, Jr.: Flexible with ideas, rigid on quality n this issue of ES&T, we pay tribute to Walter J. Weber, Jr.—a pioneer who helped define the modern environmental engineer as someone who is immersed in the methods and the rigor of the fundamental sciences. In Dr. Weber’s 40-plus years of seeking the basic principles that will allow us to quench the world’s thirst for pure water, he has inspired thousands of engineers and scientists with his dedication and insights. Former students and current colleagues have joined to pay tribute to Dr. Weber by publishing a set of 13 landmark papers that cover a number of the key areas that he has helped to define and advance over the years. Two papers, by Karanfil and Dastgheib, and Wigton and Kilduff, address the science of activated carbon adsorption—an area where Dr. Weber made many of his early contributions. Their consideration of the role of the physical structure of the carbon, multiphase adsorption, and the effects of natural dissolved organic matter on sorption, with a particular focus on micropore structure and pore blockage effects, portends many of the methodological advances and multidisciplinary knowledge that would be needed in Dr. Weber’s later research and applications. Another four papers, by Pignatello and Lu, Xiao et al., Ju and Young, and Hur and Schlautman, explore the different sorption behaviors exhibited by various forms of natural organic carbon in the environment. They apply insights from polymer theory to describe implications for the organic matter found in flexible, “rubbery” soft carbon forms versus the matter in rigid, “glassy” hard carbon domains. These papers consider the physical and chemical properties of naturally occurring organic matter, competitive adsorption, and the effective characterization of humic substances in the environment. This work provides the fundamental basis for extending insights from the engineered world of the (activated carbon) treatment plant to the natural world of the biosphere. To carry Dr. Weber’s influence fully into the natural environment, four other papers consider a broader range of physical and biological processes that determine chemi-
I
© 2004 American Chemical Society
cal fate and transport in ground and surface waters. These include Miller and Gray’s reassessment of the underlying basis for Darcy’s law and the porosity–permeability relationship in porous media, as well as Bernardez and Ghoshal’s characterization of nonaqueous-phase liquid (NAPL)–surfactant dissolution processes. In an important field-site application, Ramsburg et al. demonstrate that biological removal by reductive dechlorination can be induced by a surfactant treatment, while Chin et al. show the effects of dissolved organic matter on photolysis reactions in natural waters. Three papers, by Hahn et al., Tufenkji et al., and DiGiano et al., explore Walt’s interest in the physicochemical properties of particles and their implications for the transport and removal of microbial pathogens in porous media and water distribution systems. These relationships are essential to ensuring that designs and systems that provide for water reuse—and protect the ambient environment—are successful. This issue could not have appeared without the committed efforts of the reviewers, who contributed their time and knowledge, and the able guidance and direction of my ES&T editorial assistant, Karen Musati. I particularly acknowledge the dedication of the special editors who supervised the reviews for this tribute issue: Yu-Ping Chin, Weilin Huang, Tanju Karanfil, Lynn Katz, Chip Kilduff, Eugene LeBoeuf, and Thomas M. Young. They labored with care and persistence to ensure that the papers would meet the expectations for excellence that mark both Dr. Weber’s work and the standards of our journal, all within the tight publication deadlines that accompanied this issue. We hope that these papers stimulate further work to carry on the vision of Walter Weber—with a firm and rigid pursuit of quality—and that Walt remains as young-spirited and flexible (dare we say “rubbery”?) as ever in his pursuit of new ideas and advances. Mitchell J. Small Carnegie Mellon University
[email protected] NOVEMBER 15, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ■ 431A
