In Memoriam: Dr. Alan Molof

New York University Department of Civil and Urban Engineering is deeply saddened by the passing, on October 22, 2015, of Professor Alan Molof, a pillar of Environmental Engineering at NYU for over 50 years.

Professor Molof joined NYU’s Civil Engineering Department in 1962, after receiving a PhD and two MS degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is credited with expanding NYU’s offerings in environmental engineering. His area of specialization was wastewater treatment. He holds domestic and foreign patents in biological, chemical, and physical wastewater treatment processes; environmental instrumentation; wastewater treatment equipment; nutrient removal for wastewater treatment; and point-of-use water treatment processes.

During his long career, Dr. Molof mentored 18 doctoral students and taught numerous environmental engineers who rose to the highest leadership positions in academia, government, and industry. Through his students and research work, Dr. Molof contributed to the advancement of the field of environmental engineering, especially in biological wastewater treatment dealing with the biological reduction of nutrients. Dr. Molof’s findings appeared regularly in peer-reviewed journals and were a regular part of presentations at national and state pollution control conferences; on occasion his work also appeared on television evening news as well as in the New York Times.

Professor Molof is survived by his wife of over 50 years, June, his four children (Vallerie, Corinne, Brad, and Keith) and his eight grandchildren.