CRC Mourns the Loss of Long-time CRC Friend, Ed Bouwer

 

Dr. Edward “Ed” John. Bouwer, a longtime Johns Hopkins professor and CRC board member, passed away in October. He was 63.

Bouwer, a nationally-recognized environmental engineer, had been at Johns Hopkins since 1985 and became the chair of that department in 2007. During that time, the program was recognized as one of the top 10 in the nation. He was hired by Dr. Charles O’Melia to help reinvigorate the department, and since then worked tirelessly on an outstanding body of  teaching, research, and service. He was especially adept at communicating scientific information to broad audiences.

Bouwer’s expertise was primarily in microbial process engineering and contaminant transport and fate, including applications to drinking water quality, wastewater treatment, groundwater remediation, and most recently, biofuel production. His research focused on a range of environmental issues, including the risk of dry-cleaning solvents in groundwater, and chromium pollution in sediments at Harbor Point and other locations in and around the Baltimore harbor.

He was known as a strong advisor to undergraduates and graduate students. In fact, he had just attended one of his student’s doctoral defense seminars less than two weeks before passing. It marked the completed dissertation of his 26th doctoral student and his presence helped to make the event and day a joyous one.  Sadly, however, it was his last visit to campus.

CRC mourns the loss of Bouwer, a long-time contributor to the Board. “Ed served on the CRC Board of Trustees longer than I have,” said Fred Dobbs, Chair of the Board and Professor and Chair at Old Dominion University, “and I knew of his contributions in that context. It has been wonderful to read about his storied career in the announcements that have come out following his passing.”

Larry Nagahara of Johns Hopkins added: “One of my very first appointments as Associate Dean for Research back in 2015 was a meeting with Ed and Bill Ball on CRC and the invitation to join the Board.  The enthusiasm that Ed (and Bill) showed in describing the rich history and importance that CRC plays in the region (and nationally) left a profound impression on me. This kind of devotion is rarely seen.”

Bill Ball, outgoing Executive Director, recalled his long relationship with Bouwer:

“Ed Bouwer was a beloved faculty member in environmental engineering and science at Johns Hopkins whose loss has been deeply felt by our entire university and by our profession. Ed arrived at JHU in 1985, seven years before my own arrival.

“I recall that although Ed was on sabbatical in the Netherlands at the time of my hire, he nonetheless went out of his way to contact me then and welcome me to the department.  As an ‘academic cousin’ who had received his graduate degrees from the same program at Stanford that I did, he was beaming when he greeted me and proud to be wearing “Cardinal” colored tennis gear..

“For the next 28 years, he was an excellent colleague and personal friend, leading the way for me throughout my academic career. Although I’d actually been ahead of Ed in Stanford’s MS program (where we missed one another by a year), I first worked for 6 years in consulting before pursuing my PhD — so he proceeded me in academia.

“From the beginning, Ed was generous with his time and expertise. When I first came to JHU, I ‘inherited’ one of Ed’s courses on water and wastewater treatment for undergraduates, and was forever grateful for the generosity with which he shared his notes – these notes served as the foundation for my own, in a course that I went on to teach for the next 25 years! And in research, our interactions were even more intense and fruitful — Ed’s expertise in microbial processes and biotechnology perfectly complemented my focus on physical and chemical processes, and we each served on most of each other’s students’ committees. So it was natural and appropriate that Ed should serve as my ‘alternate’ when I served as JHU’s representative on the CRC Board of Trustees and he seemed pleased to stay in that role after I became Director.

“In this work, as in everything he did, Ed was remarkably (unusually and unfailingly!) conscientious and responsible, always responding to inquiries and requests in a timely and appropriate way and helping colleagues in every way he could.

“I feel privileged to have been able to spend as much time with Ed as I did, including not only the decades of work we did together, but also some relaxing times in non-work settings, including some special times together in the last years and months. I was honored and touched that he remembered the Chesapeake Bay within his list of ‘causes’ for memorial contributions, and I will forever be grateful for his many positive contributions to my own life, to our profession and, indeed, to the world. He will be sorely missed but not forgotten.”

To read more about Bouwer’s life and achievements, read these obituaries from Johns Hopkins University, the Baltimore Sun, and the Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors.