Lasting Memories

Paul V. Roberts
Nov. 27, 1938-Feb. 12, 2006
Cupertino, California

Paul V. Roberts, a Stanford University professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering, died Feb. 12, 2006, of leukemia at his Cupertino home. He was 67. He was born Nov. 27, 1938, in Washington, D.C. In 1960, he earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University, then pursued graduate study at Cornell University, where he met his future wife, Inge. They married in 1965.

After receiving a doctorate in chemical engineering at Cornell in 1966, Roberts spent nearly a year in Chile as a visiting professor at two universities. From 1968 to 1971, he was a research engineer at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park. However, his interest in nature and increasing concern about industrial pollution led him to change his career goals and devote his life to solving environmental problems. To that end, he enrolled at Stanford. In 1971, shortly after obtaining a master's degree in environmental engineering, he was offered a position with the Swiss Federal Institute of Water Supply and Water Pollution Control (EAWAG). He then accepted an offer from Stanford to be a research professor of environmental engineering in 1976. In his initial work at Stanford, Roberts directed a field study to evaluate the potential for reclaiming wastewater from the city of Palo Alto by using advanced treatment processes followed by injection and storage in the aquifer below the San Francisco Bay wetlands. He subsequently developed a field laboratory at the Moffett Federal Air Field. He was appointed full professor in 1986 and served as associate chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1985 to 1990. He became emeritus in 2000. Roberts is survived by his wife, Inge Roberts, of Cupertino; three children, Nina, Christopher and Sebastian; and nine grandchildren.