Walter J. Weber, Jr.’s Unique LEGACY For more than 40 years, this scientist, educator, and mentor has contributed much to environmental engineering.
DWIGHT CENDROWSKI
RACHEL PETKEWICH
n the late 1950s, as a doctoral stu-
I
“Many people before me realized there is
dent at Harvard University, Walter
a limited supply of water on the surface
Jacob Weber, Jr., quietly began his
of the earth,” he recalls. Weber discussed
tangle with traditionalists. Reuse
the problem at length with John F.
wastewater? “Walter, you will never do
Kennedy, a Harvard alumnus, when he
that,” exclaimed Gordon Fair, one of
came to visit campus as a Massachusetts
Weber’s early mentors at Harvard and
state senator and on subsequent occa-
generally recognized as the father of san-
sions by phone. Then, shortly after his in-
itary engineering. “You will go to sources
auguration as President in 1961, Kennedy
like the Quabbin Reservoir near Boston or
delivered a special message to Congress
the Catskills of New York and bring pure
that cemented Weber’s passion. “To meet
water down to the city in pipes like the old
all [water] needs—domestic, agricultural,
Romans did in their aqueducts.”
industrial, recreational,” Kennedy said,
But Weber was thinking about the big
“we shall have to use and reuse the same
picture, the future, and refused to aban-
water, maintaining quality as well as
don the idea of reclaiming wastewater.
quantity.”
© 2004 American Chemical Society
NOVEMBER 15, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ■ 435A
DWIGHT CENDROWSKI
Weber might have used that last phrase as the philosophy for his career of more than 40 years in environmental research and teaching, which is still going strong. After he obtained his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1962, the University of Michigan hired him as an assistant professor. In five years, he became a full professor. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1985. In 1987, he was named one of only 20 Distinguished University Professors at Michigan. Although he is among the most highly cited engineers in the field and has worked on landmark projects around the world, he says that students remain his intellectual “lifeblood.” Productive professors advise about 30 graduate students in a career. To date, Weber has graduated 72.
FPO
Weber still teaches classes at the University of Michigan.
Weber is fond of quoting football’s most famous coach, Vince Lombardi: “The quality of a person’s life is judged in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.”
Professor Weber One of Weber’s first graduate students, Thomas Keinath, who finished his Ph.D. at Michigan in 1968, is now dean of engineering and science at Clemson University. Weber had convinced him to stay at Michigan rather than go to Harvard. Keinath remembers Weber as a highly enthusiastic, inspiring classroom teacher who not only motivated students but also challenged them to excel. “[Weber] encouraged and gently prodded [his students] to move out of their comfort zone to become the very best they could be, more than they ever thought possible.” Francis DiGiano, who earned a Ph.D. in 1969 and is now a professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, explains that Weber had a broad vision— ahead of his time—but started with first principles. Weber’s approach resonated with DiGiano. Although Weber’s group called civil engineering its home department then, Weber had his students take classes in chemical engineering to learn systematic approaches that could be used to develop environmental treatment processes. The crossover is common now but was dramatic at the time. In the late 1960s and 1970s, environmental engineering was moving from trial-and-error to more predictive approaches. Weber’s fundamentalist theory and multidisciplinary approach were “at the 436A ■ ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NOVEMBER 15, 2004
vanguard” of that movement, says DiGiano. Weber’s students and colleagues know he expects a lot. For example, his students remember that Weber once returned from Germany with a thesis that he thought would really help a member of the group. “But Dr. Weber, this is in German,” the student told him. “Yes, but just read my comments,” he replied. Unfortunately, Weber had written his comments in makeshift German. (When Weber was in school, Ph.D. candidates had to pass a foreign language requirement. Michigan, among other universities, officially dropped this requirement decades ago.) Weber treats his students like colleagues, says Thomas Young, who graduated from Weber’s group in 1996 and is currently a professor at the University of California, Davis. “He acted like we were as smart as he was, but we just didn’t know as much yet.” That may explain why Weber likes to recruit undergraduates for his group. Several of his graduate students started working with him as early as their first undergraduate year—even if they had different majors. And perhaps that experience explains why they continue to call him Dr. or Prof. Weber—sometimes even after they graduate. When Yu-Ping Chin, now a professor at Ohio State University, graduated in 1988, he asked Weber if he could call him Walt. “Only over the phone,” Weber replied. Several Weber graduates paint a picture of a patient man who has compassion and flexibility for his students when they run up against tough personal situations. Many students also praise his mastery of writing and his willingness to take the time to help them become better writers. DiGiano remembers Weber “bounding down the steps” to “squirrel cages” in the basement, where the graduate student offices were located. Weber dropped the first chapter of DiGiano’s thesis—covered in red marks—on his desk. Weber’s only comment: “You can do better.” When they collaborated on a book in the mid-1990s, DiGiano had his turn to edit Weber. Weber’s success in research has also been well rewarded with grants. He has been instrumental in bringing in more than $100 million in research and training grant funding to the university. In 1996, Weber donated the money he won for the National Water Research Institute’s Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize to establish a lecture series in environmental sciences and engineering at Michigan. In 1997, he personally endowed a professorship in sustainable earth systems in the College of Engineering. (He named it after two of his mentors, Fair of Harvard and Earnest Boyce, a professor emeritus at Michigan when Walt joined the faculty.) Why? “I felt [the lecture series and the professorship were] tangible and constructive ways to express my appreciation for the opportunities I had to grow intellectually, to advance my career, to contribute to environmental quality and sustainability, and to have so darn much fun doing those things at Michigan over the years,” he explains. Weber’s students remember him as a mentor who encouraged them to “do what is intellectually interesting and challenging.” As an advisor, he requires all graduate students in his group to teach in his laboratory and lecture classes, whether they think they
water and wastewater utilities in nearby Peoria. Weber says that he “became restless with [his] job as a process engineer and wanted to learn more about science and technology,” so he left Caterpillar in 1957 to study for a master’s degree in civil engineering at Rutgers. He had planned to head back to industry after finishing that degree. On the Friday before the Monday that classes would begin, Weber arrived at Rutgers to sign up for his fellowship with Marvin Granstrom, the chair of the department. But Granstrom had other plans. “Due to the sudden departure of a faculty member this week, we need someone to teach fluid mechanics to juniors. Are you interested?” Granstrom asked. Weber remembers being stunned—he would only be two years older than his students—but he could use the extra money. Excited and nervous, he accepted the challenges that come with being an instructor. And it turned out he liked it. He ended up alternately teaching fluid mechanics and materials science for the next four semesters. “When I was thrown into the teaching pit at Rutgers, I developed a passion for it, and I have had that passion ever since,” he says. Weber was so enthusiastic about teaching that he said he wanted to stay for a Ph.D. at Rutgers, but his advisors, Granstrom, Brewster Snow, and Elmer Easton, then Rutger’s dean of engineering, thought he would do better at Harvard with Fair, Werner Stumm, and J. Carroll Morris. Granstrom even drove Weber to Cambridge in 1959 to meet the distinguished professors before Weber decided whether he and his wife Ruth would move with their young daughter. COURTESY OF WALTER J. WEBER, JR.
want to be professors or not. Perhaps not surprisingly, about half of his graduates currently hold academic positions. Weber could teach anywhere, says Michael Keinath, who is finishing his doctorate in Weber’s group and is Thomas Keinath’s son. Riding the subway train in Washington, D.C., with Weber and other members of the group, Michael recalls wondering why their ears “popped” as they passed through a tunnel. “Start with the basics,” Weber replied. As they rode, surrounded by commuters, Weber discussed the properties of fluid flow, which led the students to explain the phenomenon themselves. Although a cadre of people who have known Weber during his career describe him with words such as godfather, guru, giant, idol, world leader, inspiring, brilliant, and amazingly energetic, they also categorize him as stubborn and persistent, with a matching ego and strong personality. Not every colleague is a fan—especially those who have been put on the spot during meetings or conferences. Weber has been known to walk up to the microphone in a technical session and give a “15-minute retort on a 20-minute presentation,” says DiGiano. Some people criticize him for being too serious about science and engineering, but his students believe his intentions are honorable—that he is always trying to advance understanding. Although his first graduate students report that Weber has mellowed over the years, Weber is well known as a “workaholic”. In 1995, he accompanied graduate student Richard Gullick, now a research scientist for American Water, to a NATO meeting in Turkey. Gullick says that Weber didn’t miss a single presentation, but it was great to see him take a little time to relax next to the Mediterranean, too. Weber basically admits that he doesn’t stop moving. “If you are working, then I am working” is what he told Weilin Huang, a 1997 graduate and now a professor at Rutgers University when Weber told Huang to fax him drafts of manuscripts over holiday breaks. Huang says Weber still works as hard as or harder than any graduate student.
“Are you interested?” Perhaps it’s Weber’s blue-collar beginning that keeps him going. Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., on June 16, 1934, he lost his parents early in life. His mother died of cancer in the spring of 1942, and his father died of pneumonia the following Christmas Day. Shortly thereafter, he and his younger brother moved to central New Jersey to live with adoptive parents. As a teenager, Weber dabbled in bands, loved sports, and worked on construction jobs. When he graduated from high school in 1952, he chose a scholarship opportunity from Brown University so that he could pursue chemical engineering, football, and track. Science and engineering took center stage when a serious back injury permanently sidelined Weber from collegiate competition—after he had earned three varsity letters. Upon graduating from Brown in 1956, Weber went to work for Caterpillar Tractor Co. in Peoria, Ill. That’s when he started to learn about water issues from his neighbor, a civil engineer and the superintendent for
Scuba anyone? Weber has explored water from many angles.
“Water” Weber In the early 1960s, there was no EPA in the United States. The U.S. Public Health Service had all responsibility for water and sanitation. At the time, biNOVEMBER 15, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ■ 437A
COURTESY OF WALTER J. WEBER, JR.
ological treatment methods were the most advanced technologies used to clean up wastewater before it was released into the environment. However, sulfonated alkylbenzenes—otherwise known as synthetic detergents—were becoming popular in household and industrial products, and they were not biodegradable. Treatment plants tried using activated sludge, which required pumping in additional air to support bacterial growth. Unfortunately, the activated sludge removed little of the detergents from the water.
While at Harvard University, Weber (right) worked with Werner Stumm (left).
describing a new mechanism for proton buffering in natural waters. In 1965, they followed up with a paper describing how silicato–iron(III) complexes form in aqueous solutions. Both papers remain highly regarded and widely referenced today—perhaps two reasons why he still gets letters from prospective students addressed to “Water” Weber. Weber looks back on his time at Harvard as perhaps the “richest” of his life. His growing family, which then included three young daughters, loved living in Massachusetts. And his desire to teach and his research goals for sustainable environmental issues “all came together” in those four years. Therefore, by the time he had defended his dissertation in water resources engineering, one of Harvard’s staunch policies—not hiring new graduates of its own programs for faculty positions—presented a dilemma. Although his advisors wanted him on staff, he couldn’t be. While deciding what to do next, Weber took a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard in the division of engineering and applied physics. During that time, he attended a conference in London. There, Jack Borchard, a professor from the University of Michigan, approached him about a job. When Weber returned to Harvard, he conferred with Morris, who told him to go off to Michigan—the program there was growing—and come back to Harvard in a few years. Convinced he would return after a brief hiatus, Weber made the move to Ann Arbor.
Leader of the pack “These [supposedly clean] waters were going into rivers, lakes, and streams with billowing foams on them. Here was [physical evidence] that there were chemical contaminants getting through our best wastewater treatment plants,” says Weber. He saw 10foot layers of foam on top of the water-processing plants and read local newspaper articles about the foams also appearing on the Mystic and Charles rivers near Boston. Residents across the country were alarmed, so the Public Health Service initiated an advanced waste treatment program. Morris was contracted to assess potential technologies and asked Weber to help him research and write the report. After they wrote the monograph, the Public Health Service asked them to choose a particular technology to research. “[I] picked activated carbon technology, and that launched my career,” says Weber. However, Weber still wanted to push for complete reclamation. “Mounting concern [about] contamination of natural waters and the whole concept of reusing those waters directly were at the cutting edge… only a handful of people in the world had the idea that reclamation was what we would have to go to,” he says. Morris agreed with Weber that wastewater should be cleaned with more advanced technologies before it is returned to the environment, but like Fair, Morris was adamant about using only pristine sources for drinking water. As if the research on water reclamation was not enough to keep Weber busy at Harvard, he also worked with Stumm on advancing understanding of aquatic chemistry. The two published a seminal work that appeared in 1963, after Weber had graduated, 438A ■ ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / NOVEMBER 15, 2004
Weber never applied for a faculty position at Harvard. Instead, he has spent decades helping his home institution to develop one of the most highly ranked programs in the United States. Since he became a Wolverine in 1963, he has received “lots of offers” to leave Michigan. What was so appealing about this school and city in the Great Lakes region that made him want to spend his entire career there? People. “There were no boundaries on what I wanted to pursue professionally.” He loved the fact that “people were open, and they talked.” He found colleagues in the schools of law, public health, and natural resources, and he would later develop collaborations to do research that better served the needs and interests of his students. And, “I kept getting great students,” he says. Weber’s group branched out over the years. Yet, Weber is known for “sticking with a topic” and digging deep into a problem, says Mitchell Small, a 1982 graduate who is now a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. For example, Weber examined heavy metal and complexation reactions, as well as the role of organic materials in sorption, which led to fate, transport, and accumulation studies in soil and sediment. That work culminated in a well-known series of 15 papers published in ES&T beginning in 1992. His seminal work on absorption and ion exchange later included membrane studies and examined reduction and oxidation reactions that transformed contaminants. And, of course, there was the water work. Outside the university, Weber sat on various editorial boards, including that of ES&T. Research and plenary lectures took him to different countries, but
as a registered professional engineer, he also worked as a consultant on various industrial and foreign government projects. “One of the reasons I engaged in consulting was that it made everything in the classroom relevant.” In addition to helping him stay on top of the issues, Weber says that the projects helped him guide his research and increased his value as a teacher. In the United States, for example, he put his research on activated carbon and membrane technology to work in a project in Orange County, Calif., called Water Factory 21. Planning began in the mid1960s, and the plant pumped its first water in 1976. It is still operational today. In the early 1970s, an Israeli engineering firm engaged Weber as its principal consultant to help develop a water-supply master plan for Singapore. At the time, Singapore was getting drinking water from Malaysia, and the relationship was in serious turmoil. The project has just been completed; in many ways, it reflects Weber’s vision because it includes complete reclamation and recycling of wastewater. “Singapore is the most advanced development of implementation of reclamation technology in the world,” Weber exclaims. “They call it ‘NEWater’ and even bottle it for export.” Weber brought his practical knowledge home to many students and colleagues at Michigan by founding several research centers and developing new curricula. In 1966, he co-founded the University CrossDisciplinary Degree Program in Water Resources Engineering, Sciences, and Management, which he chaired until 1992. From 1988 through 2001, he helped found and chair three other centers for hazardous substances, environmental sciences and technology, and bioremediation. In 2001, he created ConsEnSus (Concentrations in Environmental Sustainability), an academic initiative in the College of Engineering. Students in any branch of engineering at Michigan can earn an Environmental Sustainability designation on their master’s degree, Weber explains. Many of the courses are built on real-world case studies. That experience makes the students “hot items in industry, because with [today’s] emphasis on sustainability, industry can’t just depend on environmental engineers to come in and fix the problems.” He believes all engineers should be taught to be environmentally literate, do product lifecycle analysis, appreciate the ultimate fate of the materials they use, and realize the need for a different energy economy. Deborah Ross, a fourth-year doctoral student currently in Weber’s group, worked with him to develop a ConsEnSus course. She presented the curriculum at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Green Chemistry Conference in 2002. She says that Weber’s insight, guidance, and direction made developing the course possible.
Not a retirement party When Huang called Weber to tell him that his students were organizing a symposium in Weber’s honor for the fall 2003 ACS meeting in New York City, Weber remembers feeling humble. “To be recognized by one’s
students is the ultimate compliment,” he says. To Huang, he added only one caveat: “Just don’t treat it as a retirement party.” Make no mistake—Weber is still in force. He teaches courses every semester and continues to recruit new students. Physicochemical and biochemical themes on environmental issues permeate his work, but he says his “heart is really in chemical process dynamics.” He adds, “Every 10 years or so, I have redirected my research and teaching emphasis and now focus on environmental sustainability in general, and energy, materials, and resource conservation in particular.” Current projects include work on advanced chemical and thermochemical oxidation processes for destroying emerging and persistent organic chemicals such as endocrine disrupters. He is also exploring molecular reconfiguration of natural organic matter to prevent disinfection byproduct formation and ways of using nanomaterials in applications ranging from soil remediation to hydrogen storage. He refers to his latest water project as DOTNet, an acronym for a “distributed optimum technology network” concept to modify traditional drinking-water treatment and distribution infrastructures. With so much experience under his belt, Weber has some perspective on how engineering has changed and the shape education will take in the future. “I think that the field of environmental engineering needs people who have a solid background in chemistry, microbiology, nanotechnology, and fundamental knowledge of that nature, and perhaps civil engineering is not as logical a home for educating such people as it once was.” He predicts even more change in the way that environmental engineering fits into colleges of engineering and other programs in the years to come. “The traditional vertical departmental structure [of academe] is not perfectly satisfactory,” he says with a chuckle. Will Weber be in the lab to see if those changes come about? “Heck, I’m only 70,” he says. Although he could stay busy just keeping up with his four daughters and five grandchildren, who all live nearby in Ann Arbor, he has no plans to retire from the lab, classroom, or life. A few years back, he still played squash and went scuba diving. Now, physical exercise consists mainly of working with his 1935 Allis Chalmers farm tractor at his 10-acre lakeside home and chopping firewood for cold Michigan winters. However, he says, “I can still probably hold my own on the basketball court against [California Institute of Technology professor] Jim Morgan and [ Johns Hopkins University professor] Charlie O’Melia—in a brief half-court game.”
Acknowledgments Thanks to current and former Weber students and colleagues who shared stories and pictures for this article: Takashi Asano, Yu-Ping Chin, John Crittenden, Francis DiGiano, Menachem Elimelech, Richard Gullick, Weilin Huang, Michael Keinath, Thomas Keinath, Deborah Ross, Mitchell Small, and Thomas Young. Rachel Petkewich is an associate editor of ES&T. NOVEMBER 15, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ■ 439A
