Donald Van Norman Roberts

Early life

Donald Roberts was born in Fresno, California, as the son to Jewell A. Roberts and Helen M. Roberts. In 1946, he was accepted to Stanford University, where he majored in civil engineering. Having completed his Stanford undergraduate degree in 1950, he attended a civil engineering and geology graduate program at the Imperial College of the University of London, England. At the Royal School of Mines, he completed courses in engineering geology and advanced courses in stratigraphy and mineralogy.

On April 9, 1951, Roberts married Charleen Doty in Dawlish, South Devon England. They had four children: Jean Leston, Alice Lynn, Alan Emery, and James Frederick.

Professional career

Roberts worked at Dames & Moore from 1951 to 1987. His early work involved developing new approaches to analyzing and designing foundations for buildings constructed over soft compressible soils which exhibited the extreme effects of weakness and subsidence. He also studied landslides, soil responses to earthquakes, and expansive soils. In 1961, Roberts became a partner of Dames & Moore.

Roberts was one of the earliest in the engineering profession to develop the principles of sustainability. His career evolved from specialized geotechnical engineering to solving a broader range of problems involving natural hazards and man-made pollution. In 1987 as one of two Senior Partners at Dames & Moore, Roberts joined CH2M Hill as Vice President.

Beginning in the late 1980s, Roberts began to focus on environmental problems, on applying the concepts of sustainable development on a wider scale, and on efforts to encourage cooperation between engineering professionals and environmentalists to solve environmental problems. His keynote presentation in 1990 on the need for sustainability in engineering stimulated efforts in the United States by major engineering societies such as the American Society of Civil Engineers. In this keynote, he presented a model of sustainability, outlined the challenge of sustainability for engineers, and suggested ways in which environmentally friendly approaches and sustainability can be achieved in engineering education. Roberts' keynote influenced the current concerns over global warming and stimulated changes in the engineering curricula in America. It was also one of the initiatives that led to the creation of the World Engineering Partnership for Sustainable Development, and helped with the creation of Engineers Without Borders.

Since 1990, Roberts has presented on the subject of sustainability and became the President of the World Engineering Partnership for Sustainable Development. In 2001, he became vice president of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, where he published Engineers and Sustainable Development, which is now used extensively in engineering college courses. In 2003, WFEO awarded Roberts the Gold Medal, ‘for outstanding service to humanity’. In 2004, Roberts was the recipient of the Joan Hodges Queaneau Palladium Award, from the American Association of Engineering Societies and the National Audubon Society, for "outstanding achievement in environmental conservation as one of the engineering professions’ most eloquent spokespersons for sustainable development". In 2005 he received the ASCE President’s Award. In 2009 ASCE bestowed upon Roberts a Distinguished Membership, the society’s highest accolade, for "bringing the principles of sustainability into the lexicon of the engineering profession". Roberts served as a board member of Engineers Without Borders -USA (EWB-USA), was a founder of the Hazardous Waste Coalition, and served as a president of ASFE.