Prof. em. Willi Hermann Hager

Willi H. Hager was given the title of Professor on November 12, 1998. He lectured Scientific methods in dam hydraulics and Wastewater hydraulics at ETH Zurich. He had several PhD students and collaborated extensively with international researchers. He was retired as Emeritus Professor on July 31, 2016.

Born on July 8th, 1951, he studied civil engineering at ETH with a diploma in 1976. After 7 years of engineering practice and a PhD thesis submitted to VAW in 1981, he was a scientific collaborator of the Chaire de Constructions Hydrauliques at the Swiss Federal Institute of Lausanne (EPFL). From 1989 to 1998, he was head of the scientic staff of VAW, from when he took over as research head, as also as member of the VAW Direction until his retirement in 2016.

His principle research interests include engineering hydraulics in wastewater technology, hydraulic structures and natural disasters. In total, 25 books and nearly 600 papers published mainly in review journals are available. Research projects sponsored by the Swiss National Science Foundation included cascade flows, dambreak waves, impulse waves, and scour processes. In addition, sewer flows received particular research attention.

He was receipient of the VSA Award for Mobile Discharge Measurement in 1986, and the J.C. Stevens Award in 1988, the Best Practice Paper Award, and the Best Technical Note Award in 1994, all of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) presented him the Ippen Award in 1997. He is a Fellow ASCE, Honorary member of IAHR since 2013, and was the Secretary of its Hydraulic Structures Section. He further was a member of the Swiss Engineers and Architects (SIA), the Swiss Wastewater Association (VSA), and a Member of working group 1.2.2 of Abwassertechnische Vereinigung (ATV), Germany. He is married and father of three daughters.