E. John List (PhD '65), Caltech Professor Emeritus, Receives ASCE 2024 Best Case Study Award

E.J. (John) List, Professor of Environmental Engineering Science, Emeritus, has received the 2024 Best Case Study Award from the Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI). EWRI is the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) technical source for environmental and water-related issues.

List receives the award for his paper titled, "Contaminant Dispersion and Breakthrough in Groundwater Flow: Case Study in Maui, Hawaii," which was published in the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering in December 2022. This paper showed that the current theory of longitudinal dispersion in groundwater flows (i.e., how pollutants spread in groundwater) couldn't explain clear data from the University of Hawaii. Professor List then came up with a new theory that more clearly fit the data. This research helps researchers understand whether it is just as harmful for pollutants to enter the ocean through direct discharges or indirectly through groundwater.

Professor List was interviewed by the Caltech Heritage Project in August 2021, and you can read the full transcript here.