John E. Pearson

Professor Emeritus

John E. Pearson joined the faculty of the Department of General Engineering Drawing in September 1939. Prior to joining the faculty, he held positions in several industries as a design and development engineer. He became a full professor in the fall of 1953.

In 1942, he was called to active duty in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a lieutenant and rose to the rank of major. After receiving his MS in meteorology, he served as a staff weather officer for the commanding general of the 20th Army Air Corps in the Pacific. He returned to the University in February 1946.

He then began his distinguished career as a research scientist in meteorology. His early work (1956-57) was with the Illinois State Water Survey and the Argonne National Laboratory, addressing the general problem of radioactive hazards in the atmosphere. In April 1961, he was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the transfer of natural radon into the atmosphere. This reasearch was funded for the next four years and is considered to be the baseline research in radon gas emissions into the atmosphere. During this time he established the Atmospheric Science Laboratory in the Transportation Building. He was a prolific contributor of technical articles to many refereed journals includng an invited paper at the International Symposium on Atmospheric Chemistry, Circulations, and Aerosols held in Sweden in 1965.

In 1963, he was given a joint appointment in Civil Engineering. In 1966, he was also appointed to the faculty of the Nuclear Engineering Program. In 1967, he was made a senior member of the University of Illinois Center for Zoonoses Research in the College of Veterinary Medicine. In 1968, the governor of Illinois appointed him a commissioner of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission. In 1968, he served as Chair of the Illinois Polution Control Board. In 1971, he was appointed as Associate Director of the Institute for Environmental Studeis in the Graduate College.

Pearson retired on August 31, 1974. His dedication to teaching and research helped greatly in charting the direction of the newly established Department of General Engineering in 1954.

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