Ven Te Chow: An Outstanding Scholar

During a period of nearly three decades from the 1950s to the 1970s at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, Professor Ven Te Chow made a large number of major technical contributions that changed the landscape of hydrology, hydraulics, and water resources engineering. These contributions encompass a broad spectrum of areas, including (1) deterministic hydrology, (2) stochastic hydrology, (3) open-channel hydraulics, and (4) water resources. In addition, he greatly contributed to the advancement of the entire water resources area through education, supervision of outstanding graduate students, mentoring of junior colleagues, technology transfer by consulting and lecturing, editorships of journals and book series, organization and direction of conferences, professional service, and founding of International Association of Water Resources. This paper reflects on Chow’s contributions and concludes that our profession and we indeed are better off today, because Chow graced the profession for three decades. He was an outstanding scholar, an extraordinary researcher, a renowned educator, and a water resources engineer par excellence. His accomplishments have inspired generations of water resources professionals. The paper is concluded with a personal note.