Robert F. Sawyer

Robert F. Sawyer

Dr. Sawyer studied at Stanford University in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (B.S. 1957, M.S. 1958). He served as a Rocket Test Engineer, Rocket Propulsion Research Engineer, and Chief of the Liquid Systems Analysis Section at the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, Edwards AFB, California (1958‑1961). His later graduate and doctoral degree work was at the Guggenheim Aerospace Propulsion Laboratories of the Department of Aerospace Sciences at Princeton University (M.A. 1963, Ph.D. 1966).

He joined the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of California at Berkeley as an assistant professor in 1966 and served through the rank of full professor (1991). He held a joint appointment as a Senior Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. At Berkeley he was Vice Chairperson for Graduate Studies of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (1980‑1983) and Chairperson of the Energy and Resources Group (1984‑1988), an interdisciplinary graduate department treating energy, resource, and environmental policy. He was selected the first Class of 1935 Professor of Energy (1988). Visiting appointments included: Visiting Research Scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (1971), Visiting Researcher at Imperial College (1978‑1979), Visiting Professor at Hokkaido University (1984), Visiting Professor at the Toyohashi University of Technology (1984), Visiting Scientist at the Sandia National Laboratory Combustion Research Facility (1988‑1989), and Honorary Research Fellow at University College London (1991).

Dr. Sawyer served on the President’s Council on Environmental Quality Advisory Committee on Alternative Automotive Power Systems (1971‑1976), headed the Technology Panel of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Motor Vehicle Emissions (1973‑1974), chaired the State of California ad hoc Committee on Atmospheric Carcinogens (1978‑1979), chaired the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Diesel Engine Technology (1979‑1982), served as a member of the National Research Council Committee on Army Basic Research (1987‑1988), a member of the California Air Resources Board (1975‑1976), a director of KVB, Inc. (1975‑1978), a director of the Center for Emissions Research and Analysis (1991-1994), a member of the External Advisory Panel to the World Bank Mexico City Transport Air Quality Management Program (1992-1996), a Senior Policy Advisor to the Office of Air and Radiation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1994-1995), a member of the Distinguished Advisory Panel to the Joint Auto/Oil Air Quality Improvement Research Program (1988-1996), a member of the U.S. EPA Blue Ribbon Panel on MTBE, a member of the National Research Council Committee to Review the MOBILE Model, a member of the National Research Council Committee on Evaluation of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Program, and a member of the U.S. EPA Clean Diesel Independent Review Panel. He chairs the Health Effects Institute Special Committee on Emerging Technologies. He was a member of the Advisory Committee to the College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology at the University of California at Riverside and of the Board of Advisors of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis. He chaired the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Advisory Council and co-chaired of the U.S. EPA Mobile Sources Technical Advisory Sub-committee.

Dr. Sawyer served as President of the International Combustion Institute (1992-1996), is a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a member of the Air and Waste Management Association, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and American Association of University Professors. He is a Registered Professional Engineer (Mechanical Engineering and Fire Protection Engineering) in the State of California. He is listed in American Men and Women of Science, Who’s Who in Technology, Who’s Who in Engineering, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, and Who’s Who in the West.