William Joseph Oswald (July 6, 1919 – December 8, 2005) was an American educator, scientist, and engineer who spent his entire academic career at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Public Health. He made foundational contributions to the fields of

wastewater treatment Wastewater treatment is a process used to remove contaminants from wastewater and convert it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once returned to the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on the environme ...

and applied

phycology Phycology () is the scientific study of algae. Also known as algology, phycology is a branch of life science. Algae are important as primary producers in aquatic ecosystems. Most algae are eukaryotic, photosynthetic organisms that live in a w ...

, or as he called it, "algology". Throughout a career spanning more than five decades, Oswald was the primary academic advisor to more than two dozen doctoral students, sat on more than 100 additional masters and doctoral thesis committees, and taught seminal courses in applied algology.

Early life, military service, and education

Oswald was born in

King City, California King City (variant: Kings City) is a city in Monterey County, California, United States. It is located on the Salinas River southeast of Salinas, at an elevation of . It lies along U.S. Route 101 in the Salinas Valley of California's Cent ...

in 1919. He grew up on a ranch in that area, where the arid climate stoked his interest in water supplies, wastewater treatment, and water use. In World War II, he served in the Army Air Forces and was responsible for water safety at one of the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

invasion camps. Oswald remained in the Army in Europe after the war, working in a hospital where he cared for patients suffering from waterborne ailments and met his lifelong wife, an American nurse. Returning home to California, he obtained a degree in civil engineering from the

in 1950 on the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

. He then continued his studies and was awarded an M.S. (1951) and Ph.D. (1957) in sanitary engineering, biology and public health. Oswald joined the faculty of the university the same year and went on to become a full professor in 1970. He remained in the position his entire career, staying on as an emeritus professor after his retirement.

Career

Oswald studied the role of algae in wastewater treatment as a student, winning recognition from the American Society of Civil Engineers for his early work. He continued investigating the use of microalgae in sanitation throughout his career, developing strategies for combining engineered algae ponds to obtain specific water treatment goals. He developed the "high rate pond system" of shallow, mixed

raceway pond A raceway pond is a shallow artificial pond used in the cultivation of algae. The pond is divided into a rectangular grid, with each rectangle containing one channel in the shape of an oval, like an automotive raceway circuit. From above, many p ...

s to maximize algae productivity. This design is still in use today, responsible for over 90% of the world's commercial microalgae production. His work led to the development of the "Advanced Integrated Wastewater Pond System", in which wastewater flows through a series of ponds, starting with deeper "facultative" ponds, then high rate ponds, and finally maturation ponds. The research undertaken by Oswald and his students and collaborators provided the foundations for much of modern microalgae wastewater treatment technology. Wastewater treatment plants based on his designs operate throughout the world today. With broader implications in energy and nutrient cycles, Oswald’s work often crossed over into related fields such as waste energy recovery, biofuels, animal feeds, and waste nutrient reuse. The

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

’s interest in waste and nutrient recycling for long term space missions led to Oswald’s development of the Algatron–a device that would grow microalgae on astronaut waste, treating water and also producing oxygen and food. An archive of Oswald's work is maintained by former student and long time collaborator Tryg Lundquist, now a professor of

Environmental Engineering Environmental engineering is a professional engineering discipline that encompasses broad scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology, microbiology, and mathematics to create solutions that will protect and a ...

Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

Awards and honors

Oswald was recognized throughout his career. He received the Harrison Prescott Eddy Medal in 1953 from the Water Pollution Control Federation (now known as the

Water Environment Federation The Water Environment Federation (WEF) is a not-for-profit technical and educational organization of more than 34,000 individual members and 75 Member Associations (MAs) representing water quality professionals around the world. WEF, which was form ...

) for describing photosynthetic oxygenation. The

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

awarded him both the Rudolf Hering Medal and the James Croes Medal in 1957 for work describing the fixation of nutrients and capture of solar energy by microalgae and the Arthur M. Wellington Award in 1966 for various investigations of life support systems for extended space travel. In 2005 he was awarded the lifetime achievement prize of the International Society for Applied Phycology and in 2006 he was nominated for the

Stockholm Water Prize Presented annually since 1991, the Stockholm Water Prize is an award that recognizes outstanding achievements in water related activities. Over the past three decades, Stockholm Water Prize Laureates have come from across the world and represente ...

References

External links

William Oswald Algae Research Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oswald, William J. 1919 births 2005 deaths People from King City, California American phycologists Environmental engineers University of California, Berkeley alumni UC Berkeley College of Engineering faculty Scientists from California 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American scientists Engineers from California UC Berkeley School of Public Health faculty