CEE’s John Tobiason Retires After Impactful Career at UMass Amherst

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Professor John Tobiason, the head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department from 2019 through the summer of 2024, is retiring after 37 years of brilliant research, teaching, and administrative service for the CEE Department and UMass Amherst. His more than four decades of professional and academic experience have been focused on water treatment, with emphasis on particles in water, coagulation, and water filtration. 

Among  many other accomplishments, Tobiason is a Fellow of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) and currently serves on the board of trustees of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES), representing the American Water Works Association (AWWA). Tobiason is also a past president of AEESP and past chair of the AWWA Water Science Research Division board of trustees. Beyond that, he is a past member of the editorial board of journal AWWA.

Tobiason has been with the UMass CEE department since 1987 and is a faculty member in the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Program.

When College of Engineering (CoE) Dean Sanjay Raman recently introduced Tobiason and another renowned CEE faculty member who is retiring, Professor David Reckhow, his words aptly summarized their long-term impact. “Both Dave and John arrived at UMass in the mid-eighties as experts in drinking-water treatment, and their tremendous efforts have helped grow the Environmental and Water Resource Engineering Program substantially. They have helped secure major research funding for the program, and they have helped develop key research strengths that address clean-water access — which is one of the grand challenges we face globally.”

An event on November 15 will honor Tobiason and Reckhow, their numerous accomplishments, and their extensive service to the CEE department, CoE, and UMass Amherst.

In that context, Tobiason has received more than $16,900,000 in research grants as a principal investigator and $25,184,000 as a co-principal investigator, a record that is impressive by any standard. He was also an advisor to more than 70 M.S. and Ph.D. graduate students, many of whom have made important contributions to the environmental-engineering profession.

Generally, Tobiason’s research focuses on transport and transformation of pollutants in natural and engineered systems, including drinking-water-treatment processes for removal of organic matter, particles, manganese, and other contaminants, as well as water quality in source waters and water-distributions systems. Since 2016 he has directed state-funded projects to help implement a Massachusetts Environmental Protection Agency program to assess lead levels in drinking water at Massachusetts schools and childcare facilities. 

In conjunction with that research, Tobiason was the technology co-director of the Water Innovation Network for Sustainable Small Systems, a national center which brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts to transform drinking-water treatment for small-water systems across the country. 

In 2019 the AEESP honored Tobiason with Charles R. O'Melia Distinguished Educator Award, which “recognizes an environmental-engineering or science professor who has: a record of excellent teaching in the classroom and graduate-student advising; significant research achievements that have contributed to environmental-engineering knowledge; and an outstanding record of influence through mentoring of former students and colleagues.”

Tobiason won the esteemed 2021 Gordon Maskew Fair Award from the AAEES in 2021. The Fair Award honored Tobiason as an environmental engineer who impacted his profession by “exemplary professional conduct; recognized achievements in the practice of environmental engineering and science; and significant contributions to the control of the quality of the world's environment.”

Among other college awards, the CoE has presented Tobiason with its Outstanding Teacher Award and Senior Faculty Award. In addition, Tobiason is a registered professional engineer in New Hampshire and an environmental engineer who is board-certified by the AAEES.

Since the inception of the Engineers Without Borders (EWB) - UMass Student Chapter in 2005, Tobiason has served as a faculty advisor. EWB is a student-run organization dedicated to helping local and international communities create sustainable, community-driven solutions that improve their quality of life. Tobiason helped establish our campus chapter of EWB and has guided numerous projects that provide safe water to rural communities in Africa and other places.

Tobiason earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of New Hampshire and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He then worked as a consulting engineer from 1979 to 1983 and earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1987. (October 2024)