CEE Professor Emeritus Roger A Minear passed away on February 14, 2026 in Arizona. His obituary can be viewed here.
Minear served on the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign from 1984 to 2002 when he retired, then receiving the title Professor Emeritus. From 1984 to 1995 he was Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies. He was also a faculty member in the Campus Honors Program from 1989 to 2002.
Dr. Minear had research interests in the nature, origin, transport, and transformation of organic and inorganic compounds in natural and waste waters, the chemistry of aqueous solutions and chemical processes of water and wastewater treatment, and trace and environmental analysis. He generated more than 300 professional papers, presentations, and graduate theses in the Environmental Science and Engineering field. Dr. Minear has received 56 research grant and contract awards (excluding multi-year renewals) from state, federal, and private organizations
A member of ten professional and scientific societies, Minear served on numerous committees and held several national offices. He was an active member of the American Chemical Society and a Life member of the American Water Works Association. He has also served on several national advisory boards and task forces. He was a member of the National Research Council’s Board on Environmental Sciences and Toxicolgy from 1983 to 1985 and the Agency for Toxicolgy and Disease Registry Board of Scientific Counselors from 1988 to 1993. He has served on the editorial advisory boards of Lewis Publishers, ACS Books, and two terms for the journal, Environmental Science and Technology. He served as a chemistry editor for the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry from 1995 through 1999. He was on the Standard Methods committee for four editions.
Dr. Minear has received distinguished service awards from the Association of Environmental Engineering Professors (1984) and the Division of Environmental Chemistry, American Chemical Society (1985). He was an invited scholar at Nankai University, Tianjin, People's Republic of China, September 1988, and was made a guest professor in August of 1996. From January through July of 1996, he was a visiting research scholar at Kyoto University in Japan. He has also served on several university research centers’ advisory boards and programmatic review panels.