Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Biographical / Historical
Preferred Citation
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Processing Information
Scope and Contents
Arrangement
General
Contributing Institution:
California Institute of Technology Archives and Special Collections
Title: Norman H. Brooks Papers
Creator:
Brooks, Norman
Identifier/Call Number: 10289-MS
Physical Description:
15.56 linear feet
Date (inclusive): 1930-2002
Abstract: Norman H. Brooks, Caltech James Irvine
Professor of Environmental and Civil Engineering, Emeritus; Member of National Academy of
Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, taught at Caltech for over forty years. Brooks
retired from teaching in 1995. The Norman H. Brooks papers illustrate Brooks' contributions
to the field of fluid turbulence and diffusion and environmental fluid mechanics,
particularly ocean pollution control and consist of reports, research, historical documents
from colleagues and Caltech, slides, audiovisual material and photographs.
Language of Material:
English .
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research. Researchers must apply in writing for access. Some
files are confidential and are currently closed. Researchers may request information about
closed files from the Caltech Archives.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright may not have been assigned to the California Institute of Technology Archives.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in
writing to the Caltech Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the
California Institute of Technology Archives as the owner of the physical items and, unless
explicitly stated otherwise, is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright
holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
Biographical / Historical
Norman Herrick Brooks was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on July 2, 1928. Brooks attended
Harvard University and graduated with an AB magna cum laude in 1949 in Mathematics and MS in
1950 in Civil Engineering. Brooks attended the California Institute of Technology and
graduated with a PhD summa cum laude in 1954 in the fields of Physics and Civil Engineering.
He was the first named James Irvine Professor of Environmental and Civil Engineering at
Caltech and specialized in hydraulics and hydrology. He was one of the organizers of the
graduate degree program in Environmental Engineering Science established in 1969. The
program applied both science and engineering to environmental problems. Brooks served two
terms as Executive Officer for Environmental Engineering Science from 1969 to 1974 and 1985
to 1993 and was Director of the Environmental Quality Laboratory from 1974 to 1993.
Professor Brooks became Emeritus in September 1995.
Brooks' main research contributions were in the area of hydrologic transport processes,
including the flow and dispersal of pollutants in natural bodies of water including rivers,
lakes, groundwater, and the coastal ocean. He worked on the mechanics of alluvial streams,
including floods and sediment flows. He supervised over twenty PhD students, four of whom
won the prestigious University of Minnesota Straub Award for the best hydrodynamics thesis
of the year (in English).
Brooks developed engineering procedures during his career for the hydraulic design of ocean
outfalls for disposal of wastewater in ways which protected water quality. His contributions
to outfall engineering became accepted engineering practice throughout the world. He was
also active in policy studies, mostly related to ocean disposal.
He served as a special hydraulics design consultant for more than thirty wastewater
outfalls and dealt with both the external hydraulics that determined water-quality
performance (buoyant jets, transport and dispersion of wastewater clouds by ocean currents,
sedimentation, resuspension, etc.) and internal hydraulics (manifolds, seawater intrusion,
deposition inside outfalls, friction losses, pumping, energy dissipators, etc). He was a
specialist in hydraulic modeling related to outfalls, through performance, defining the
need, scope of work recommendation, and oversight of modeling completed by others.
Brooks served as the major special hydraulics consultant of design and construction of the
9.5 mile tunneled outfall of Boston Harbor. He was the only hydraulic engineer who worked on
this major project from the start in 1986 to completion in 2001. His work on the project
encompassed preliminary design, with Camp, Dresser and McKee; final design, with Metcalf and
Eddy, lead design engineer; and construction and commissioning, with Parsons, Brinkerhoff,
Quade and Douglas, engineer for construction supervision.
He was active in National Research Council Boards and Committees. Brooks served on the NRC
Committee on Wastewater Management for Coastal Urban Areas as Chair of the Panel on
Environmental Processes and was a principal author of the resulting book, Managing
Wastewater in Coastal Urban Areas (National Academy Press 1993).
In 1994, Brooks served as the principal expert witness in Federal Court hearings on the
performance of Point Loma Outfall as extended in 1993 for the City of San Diego, EPA and
State of California vs. City of San Diego. Brooks served as a technical adviser to the City
of San Diego until the city qualified for a final wastewater permit after it demonstrated
that second treatment of the wastewater was unnecessary.
Norman H. Brooks was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, 1973, and the
National Academy of Sciences, 1981, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, 1984, and Honorary Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 1996.
The American Society of Civil Engineers honored Brooks with seven other awards, three
jointly, since 1957.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Norman H. Brooks Papers, 10289-MS, Caltech Archives, California
Institute of Technology.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Norman Brooks papers, slides and audiovisual materials were transferred to the archives
from Brooks' office in the Keck Laboratory, and donated to the Caltech Archives by Norman
Brooks in 2018.
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Clarisse Alvarez and Mariella Soprano beginning in 2018
and completed in 2021. Materials were removed from binders, file folders and manila
envelopes and were replaced with acid-free folders. The original order of materials was kept
when available. Some correspondence were placed in chronological or alphabetical order,
depending on the record creator's order. Photographs, slides and film reels were sleeved in
appropriate preservation enclosures. Various metal fasteners were removed and replaced with
archival plastic clips. Duplicate copies were removed and recycled.
Scope and Contents
The Norman H. Brooks papers are divided into four series: 1. California Institute of
Technology; 2. Reports, Research and Consultancy Work; 3. Photographic Material; 4.
Audiovisual.
The collection represents Brooks' contributions to the field of hydrology and hydraulics.
The collection also includes slides and audiovisual material from various California
Institute of Technology collaborations and are arranged in chronological order when
available.
Metadata and detailed information related to slides and audiovisual material is stored in
the Brooks' collection electronic file and available upon request. Contact the California
Institute of Technology Archives to submit a request.
Arrangement
The Norman H. Brooks Papers are divided into four series containing subseries: 1.
California Institute of Technology; 2. Reports, Research and Consultancy Work; 3.
Photographic Material; 4. Audiovisual Material.
Series 1: California Institute of Technology is divided into three subseries. Subseries 1:
Caltech Campus consists of documents and photographs related to building, JPL and campus
history, photo logs and albums, photographs of students and staff. Subseries 2:
Collaboration with Soil Conservation Service subseries consists of Reports, SCS Employment
Records (currently closed), Photo Lab Index including descriptions of slides, lab reports
and project working plans. Subseries 3: Caltech Azusa Lab subseries consists of technical
information, correspondence, sketches, progress reports, model studies and prints related to
Caltech's Azusa Lab and is grouped in chronological order when available.
Series 2: Reports, Research and Consultancy Work is divided into four subseries. Subseries
1: Reports related to Ocean Outfall and Submarine Topography. Subseries 2: Project
Supervision subseries includes Original Draft Copies of reports supervised by Brooks.
Subseries 3: Consultancy Work contains model studies and a draft report. Subseries 4:
Sponsored Research.
Series 3: Photographic Material is divided into two subseries according to media type.
Subseries 1: Slides. This subseries consists of a large collection of standard and glass
slides from the Soil Conservation Service and Caltech collaboration, Hydrodynamics and Water
Research Lab, Azusa Laboratory and Keck Laboratories of Hydraulics and Water Resources
documentation of San Francisco Ocean Outfalls. Slides are arranged by subject and
chronological order when available. A selection of slides is digitized. File names for
digitized slides are available upon request. Subseries 2: Photographs. This subseries
consists of photographs and negatives of Caltech Hydraulics Testing, design for high
velocity curves and miscellaneous photographs. The subseries is arranged in chronological
order when available.
Series 4: Audiovisual is divided into two subseries. Subseries 1: Audiovisual. This
subseries consists of film reels of meetings, lectures, footage of model building in the
Azusa lab. File names for digitized media can be found in the container list. Subseries 2:
Motion Picture Documentation. This subseries includes procedures for distibution of movies,
loan records, correspondence, motion picture lists and notes.
General
Metadata and detailed information related to slides and audiovisual material is stored in
the Brooks' collection electronic file and available upon request. Contact the California
Institute of Technology Archives to submit a request.
Norman H. Brooks Digitized Slide Collection Metadata is located in two locations:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j6BUoSnttwZDV1Pv1oMT9l5fzPV3ZAf0 and
Z:\Workspace\Brooks\NHB_Digitized Slides_Series 3.
Norman H. Brooks Digitized Film Reel Collection Metadata is located in two
locations:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AjRphjFV68hTdyDhx7ctu2Bcz126-S0Y and
Z:\Workspace\Brooks\NHB_Digitized Film Reels_Series 4.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Coastal engineering
Environmental engineering
Mechanical engineering
Hydrodynamics
Hydraulics
California Institute of Technology -- Alumni and alumnae
Manuscript Collection
California Institute of Technology