UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Interview #520
HAM, ROBERT
HAM, Robert (1936-2012)
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
At UW: 1967-1996
Interviewed: 1998
Series: College of Engineering
Interviewer: Paul Morledge
Length: 03:44:16
Childhood; Undergraduate education at Bethel College and University of Minnesota;
Graduate education at University of Washington-Seattle; Employment at UW; Leachate
research; Refuse-derived fuel; Multi-disciplinary research; Solid and hazardous waste
management in Europe and U.S.; Patents; Engineering students; Committee service;
Recycling; Sanitary Engineering program; Jerry Rollick; Kurt Wendt; Robert Marshall;
John Bollinger; Consulting work; Retirement.
First Interview Session (March 10, 1998): Tapes 1-2
Tape 1/Side 1
00:00:28
RH worked as a printer from the age of 12 through college. His father was a
minister, so by extension, he felt he was looked up to as a leader in his
community.
00:02:49
RH was interested in mechanical things like cars, toy trains and erector sets since
he was very young, which likely influenced his decision to study engineering in
college.
00:03:37
RH was naturally inclined toward mathematics and science. He had no interest in
pursuing religion like his father.
00:05:55
RH began his undergraduate education at Bethel College, since his family wanted
him to enter religious study. After two years, he transferred to the University of
Minnesota as an engineering student.
00:07:09
RH feels fortunate to have attended Bethel since the classes were so small. He
thought the small mathematics and science courses at Bethel helped him better
Robert Ham (#520)
prepare for engineering courses at the University of Minnesota.
00:09:44
RH preferred applied laboratory courses at the University of Minnesota, and he
soon realized he was not a theoretician. He took the required five-year plan to
obtain his bachelor’s in chemical engineering.
00:11:28
RH received several job offers after college, and he decided to work for the Twin
City-based 3M company.
00:14:11
RH worked as a process engineer for 3M, where his tasks included improving
sand paper and developing Scotch Brite, an abrasive sponge for dishwashing.
00:16:07
RH left 3M to attend graduate school. He was accepted to and received funding
for the University of Washington-Seattle’s master’s program in chemical
engineering.
00:19:13
RH concluded that chemical engineering was becoming too theoretical, so he
looked to the University of Washington’s Ph.D. program in sanitary engineering
as a way of applying chemical engineering to “real world” problems.
00:23:26
RH’s doctoral dissertation was on coagulation—a method of removing colloidals
from drinking water.
00:24:50
Russ Chrisman from the UW-Seattle helped get RH interested in environmental
(sanitary) engineering. Dale Carlson was another professor in the sanitary
engineering department at Washington who influenced RH greatly and eventually
pointed him to the University of Wisconsin.
00:28:22
Former UW professor Jerry Rollick was the person who drew RH to the
University of Wisconsin College of Engineering faculty and its fledgling sanitary
engineering department. Rollick assigned RH two projects—one on the
landfilling of shredded solid waste and another on monitoring water quality
around a landfill.
00:30:12
End of side.
Tape 1/Side 2
00:30:33
RH’s technical articles on these two projects were the first to use science in
studying landfills.
00:31:59
Much of RH’s research has focused on leachate, the contaminated ground water
2
Robert Ham (#520)
and gas that seeps from landfills.
00:33:51
RH’s groundbreaking research on leachate treatment in the late 1960s was
sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency.
00:34:47
RH helped the City of Madison with a gas migration problem from a landfill near
Memorial High School. He and his graduate students constructed gas pumps to
extirpate the noxious fumes from the ground.
00:37:29
Around 1972, the College of Engineering became widely known for its work in
solid waste management, and America’s foundry industries supported RH and
Professor Boyle to study the issue of foundry wastewater and solid waste
treatment. RH and Boyle came up with a “leaching test” to determine the
contaminants in both solid and liquid waste.
00:42:15
RH also studied refuse-derived fuel (RDF) from burning solid wastes. RH
worked to make RDF a mainstream fuel source both locally and internationally,
but RDF is hard to market because of its perceived pollutants.
00:45:22
RH tried to get the UW campus to use RDF for its power needs, but the physical
facilities administration balked at the idea. Many UW students protested the
administration’s reluctance to employ RDF.
00:48:21
RH also did research on processing refuse before burning, taking noxious
pollutants out of paper waste before RDF power generation.
00:52:09
RH recently began researching life cycle analyses, a new paradigm in solid and
liquid waste treatment that tries to define the optimal treatments for the
preservation of the environment. Specifically, such analyses look at comparisons
of composting, recycling and incineration for any given waste material.
00:56:20
RH worked with Proctor & Gamble to see if cloth diapers were more
environmentally safe in landfills than disposable diapers.
01:01:30
End of side. End of tape.
Tape 2/Side 1
01:01:34
During the early years of RH’s research, he was almost completely funded by
federal agencies like the EPA. Over the years, RH has learned to diversify his
funding sources to include agencies such as local governments and large
corporations.
3
Robert Ham (#520)
01:05:15
RH thinks federal agencies are more narrow-minded and conservative than private
companies when it comes to accepting new innovations in solid and hazardous
waste treatment.
01:05:46
Recently, RH worked for Proctor & Gamble and a few other Fortune 500
companies on the Freshkills Landfill Study in New York City, a multi-disciplinary
research investigation that was aimed at determining whether garbage
substantially decomposes in landfills.
01:07:54
RH enjoys participating in multi disciplinary research efforts, but he thinks they
often are not cost-effective. RH thinks there should be a way to ensure that fellow
faculty members invest enough effort into such projects.
01:14:09
One of RH’s former graduate students conducted a study demonstrating that the
lignin in newspaper is what stops it from decomposing.
01:15:09
While European countries used to be more innovative in solid and hazardous
waste management, the US now leads the world in this area. However, Europe
has recently moved ahead of the US in other technologies, such as incineration
and RDF.
01:18:55
As far as RH knows, he is the only academic in the country who specializes solely
in solid waste management. RH is now trying to promote better solid and
hazardous waste management in third world countries.
01:22:41
RH cites his 1976 Keystone Paper as his most widely acclaimed piece of technical
literature. He has been asked to read the paper at a number of conferences ever
since its first publication.
01:25:00
RH’s initial research paper on calculating lignin/cellulose proportions to
approximate decomposition time has also been well received within the field of
solid and hazardous waste management.
01:26:42
RH took a sabbatical from UW in order to travel around the nation and inspect
regional landfills. He observed significant differences in the way the landfills
operated.
01:28:29
RH chose to accept a position at the University of Wisconsin because it has a very
strong reputation as a top-level research institute, and also because the UW allows
its faculty control over their academic careers.
4
Robert Ham (#520)
01:31:15
RH thinks that the prestige of being a UW professor has diminished a bit over the
last decade or so, but he thinks the graduate students at UW measure up to those
at any other leading institution.
01:32:47
End of side.
Tape 2/Side 2
01:34:07
RH recalls his first patent for 3M, but he is not sure whether 3M capitalized on it.
He had two additional patents for his landfill testing apparatus. Most recently, he
has submitted an application for his Landfills of the Future landfill model.
01:37:13
RH originally taught courses in water treatment and analysis at UW. He also
developed the courses Solid and Hazardous Waste Engineering I & II.
01:41:15
RH characterizes the students of the 1970s as ones who were not willing to work
hard and shirked tough assignments. The students from the 1980s, on the other
hand, knew that jobs were scarce and that they would have to struggle to keep
ahead. To the students of the 1990s, school does not seem very important.
01:44:04
RH believes that computer technology has allowed students to avoid thinking,
and, therefore, students now have trouble integrating and synthesizing knowledge.
01:47:14
RH says environmental engineering at the UW has consistently attracted more
female students than the other engineering disciplines.
01:48:07
RH characterizes international engineering students as more theoretically-inclined
than the more practical type of student.
01:51:22
RH says he has derived great pleasure from watching some of his former students
go on to achieve success in the solid and hazardous waste management field.
01:52:24
RH recalls some of his M.A. and Ph.D. students who have achieved success.
01:57:19
End of side. End of tape. End of interview session.
Second Interview Session (April 13, 1998): Tapes 3-4
Tape 3/Side 1
00:00:34
RH recalls that much of his service work on campus placed an added strain on his
time demands.
5
Robert Ham (#520)
00:01:37
RH saw his chairmanship of the College of Engineering’s Environmental
Engineering Group as quite challenging.
00:04:21
During his service on the UW Hazardous Waste Committee, RH advised the
University on issues of liability within solid waste management. He helped
establish a re-use/recycle program and an education program on the dangers of
excess lab chemicals.
00:08:12
RH also helped the state of Wisconsin establish recycling programs for prisons,
mental health complexes, and roadside parks. Due to state mandates on recycling,
right now 40% of our waste is diverted from landfills to recyclable goods.
00:11:16
RH is now studying other states’ decision-making processes which determine the
feasibility of recycling, incineration and landfills.
00:12:16
RH created the Madison Waste Conference, an annual conference that is now in
its 20th year. It has become one of the nation’s leading conferences on solid and
hazardous waste management.
00:15:34
RH also has been integral in spreading knowledge of solid and hazardous waste
management throughout Wisconsin and the nation via the UW-Extension
program.
00:22:14
RH founded the solid waste management program at UW. The program is not
degree granting but in the past students in the program have been successful at
finding employment in the solid and hazardous waste management industries.
00:23:42
Recently, however, there are few openings and little demand for solid and
hazardous waste management experts.
00:26:38
Many European universities have recently begun specialized programs in solid
and hazardous waste management.
00:30:25
End of side.
Tape 3/Side 2
00:30:49
The College of Engineering has always lacked adequate laboratory space for solid
and hazardous waste studies.
00:34:54
RH sees a lot of problem areas in the merging of civil and environmental
engineering in the College of Engineering, since the facility and budget needs for
6
Robert Ham (#520)
much of their subject areas are often quite different.
00:41:36
RH discusses the well-respected Jerry Rollick, a former UW environmental
engineer.
00:44:33
RH discusses Rollick’s development of the UW Water Resources Center and the
UW’s Institute for Environmental Studies.
00:46:09
When RH first interviewed for his UW faculty position, he was impressed by the
amount of control he would be given over his own career.
00:48:29
RH describes former College of Engineering dean Wendt as a man who was
instrumental in improving the status of both the College of Engineering and the
University as a whole.
00:50:46
RH believes that while former College of Engineering dean Robert Marshall had
to navigate the College of Engineering through stormier seas than Wendt, he still
managed to do an exceptional job.
00:52:08
RH thinks current College of Engineering dean John Bollinger has done an
excellent job in difficult circumstances. Bollinger has also been fair to and
supportive of the environmental engineering division.
00:54:31
RH has consulted with academic environmental engineers in India, where he also
helped establish programs in solid waste management. He did similar consulting
with governmental engineers in Indonesia, a region which needed much assistance
with its solid and hazardous waste management.
00:59:19
RH is currently consulting with the state of Missouri about their problems with
aging landfill sites.
01:00:22
RH served as an expert witness during city of Denver’s court case against large
companies that dumped their hazardous wastes at the superfund sites outside
Denver.
01:01:45
End of side. End of tape.
Tape 4/Side 1
01:01:50
RH assisted the state of Illinois in developing performance guidelines for solid
waste management companies within the state.
7
Robert Ham (#520)
01:02:44
RH has served as an expert witness for private companies who have faced
pollution charges.
01:04:50
RH has served as a product consultant for Proctor & Gamble, determining
whether some of the company’s products decompose sufficiently in landfills.
01:09:00
Much of RH’s private industry consulting has dealt with industry liability issues.
01:09:23
RH insists that it is important to charge a substantial amount for consulting to
appear as a credible source.
01:11:24
Most of RH’s public sector consulting has dealt with policy and enforcement
issues.
01:14:51
RH decided to retire in 1991, although he did not apply for emeritus status until
1996.
01:18:40
RH found it increasingly difficult to do the research he wanted to do at UW
without bureaucratic hassles.
01:19:46
Since his retirement, RH has continued working for the College of Engineering in
a limited capacity.
01:21:23
RH also has kept busy with his most recent research project—Landfills of the
Future—which explores methods of expediting landfill decomposition.
01:26:00
RH continues teaching third-world countries proper solid and hazardous waste
management that can fit within their budgets.
01:28:38
RH has also been conducting further research in life cycle analyses during his
retirement.
01:33:02
End of side.
Tape 4/Side 2
01:34:35
RH sees the design of landfills improving in the near future, in the US as well as
in poorer nations.
01:36:42
RH sees future landfills as not simply waste depositories but as processes for
forming usable methane fuel.
8
Robert Ham (#520)
01:40:05
RH remarks on some of the more futuristic schemes for solid and hazardous waste
disposal. He also comments on the use of waste-generated fuel for a new
generation of automobiles.
01:44:10
RH has enjoyed his career at the UW and has especially enjoyed seeing his
students succeed in the world of solid and hazardous waste management.
01:44:50
RH briefly discusses the national and international press coverage he has received
recently.
01:46:57
End of side. End of tape.
END
9