In Memoriam
George James Trezek
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus
UC Berkeley
1937-2019
George James Trezek was always ahead of the curve. He was born in Chicago, IL, to George A. and Rose Trezek on July 10, 1937, well ahead of the baby boomer generation. His pioneering work on heat transfer in human and animal tissue during the 1960s preceded the development of bioengineering as a separate field within engineering. His building of a large-scale waste treatment facility at the University of California, Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station in 1969 allowed the Department of Mechanical Engineering to graduate engineers experienced with efficient recycling methodologies. One of the last technical problems he worked on was what to do about the flood of plastics, particularly plastic water bottles, inundating our landfills and oceans.
Trezek received his B.M.E. in 1960 from the General Motors Technical Institute, now Kettering University, in Flint, MI. He chose that school because of its cooperative engineering program that combined academics with work experience and permitted students to pay their own way through college. George’s mother died when he was 16. The family had limited financial resources. He became partially responsible for the education and well-being of his two younger brothers. He obtained his M.S. (1962) and Ph.D. (1965) in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (U of I). His doctoral dissertation was supervised by Professor Shao Lee Soo, an international scholar in the thermal sciences. Former president of U of I, James J. Stukel, and Trezek were classmates and friends. George married Joan A. Arcieri on August 18, 1962; they had three children. Trezek was hired as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering by Northwestern University in 1965. In 1966 he was invited to join the faculty at UC Berkeley as an assistant professor. He became associate professor in 1970 and professor of mechanical engineering in 1974.
Professor Trezek took seriously the charge for engineers to develop science that serves people in a practical and immediately beneficial way. In 1969 he established the Waste Processing Laboratory at Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station with funding from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. This facility could receive packer truck quantities of waste, shred at a rate of ten tons per hour, and classify at a rate of two tons per hour. It allowed analyses of fundamental design considerations for comminution, which is the reduction of materials to particles or fragments. He published over 100 technical articles in a wide range of vital areas, including heat transfer, bioengineering, environmental engineering, solid waste management, heavy metals treatment technology, marine sediments remediation, and plastic recycling. Trezek pioneered the use of mathematical heat transfer models in cryosurgery for the treatment of cancer. Previously the field of cryosurgery had been exclusively populated by physicians. His breakthrough work opened the door for engineering researchers and led to advances that eventually saved thousands of lives. He was an early chair of the Biomedical Engineering Committee of the College of Engineering. In 1974 he received Pi Tau Sigma’s Outstanding Teaching Award.
Trezek encouraged his advisees toward larger goals than a degree. This was manifest in his occasional participation with students in postgraduate commercial ventures. He and his Ph.D. student John Sargent founded QMS (Quantitative Medical Systems) in 1976 to provide a capability for medical practitioners to use physiologic mathematical models. They connected global users to a central computer via telephonic links before the existence of the internet. This design was critical for QMS’s role in the National Cooperative Dialysis Study – NCDS – which examined dialysis treatment adequacy with 10 geographically diverse groups and was based on a mathematical model for urea, a product of protein metabolism. Using this networked capability, the study was conducted in real time and monitored centrally, which resulted in far better control of the study protocol than had previously been possible. It is likely that this was a first for dispersed collaborative clinical investigations. The study established quantitative guidelines for appropriate dialysis therapy.
In 1981, Trezek took a year’s leave of absence to go to the Philippines to develop a master plan for solid waste management for the Metro-Manila region, which had a population then of 8 million people. His activities were sponsored by the World Bank and the Philippine Government. He said that guiding the local engineers was in many respects akin to teaching. The project was a success. While on leave, he continued his UC research on carbon fiber and plastics recycling. In the 1980s, Trezek served the State of California on many committees related to hazardous waste management. Governor Jerry Brown thanked him for his membership in the Office of Appropriate Technology’s Advisory Committee on Alternative Waste Management Technologies. Congressman Ronald Dellums congratulated him for his six-figure EPA grant on how to handle carbon fiber composition materials in solid waste. Congressman George Brown lauded Trezek for his valuable work on the Stringfellow Hazardous Waste Site and called his case study a “landmark document.” State senator John Garamendi thanked him for being a task force member for the California Senate Select Committee on Long Range Policy Planning.
In 1990, Trezek retired as an emeritus professor. He became vice-president of Research and Development at Greenfield Environmental and director of Recycling Operations at BKK Corporation in Southern California. In 1996, he established the Trezek Group, which provided consulting services to private, state, and federal agencies on waste management issues. He holds U.S. Patent #5476994 for extracting metal contamination from sediments. His technique was used to help decontaminate San Diego Bay. He was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Society for Testing and Materials, the Society of Cryobiology, Tau Beta Pi, and Pi Tau Sigma and was an ASME International Life Fellow. In 2007, he received a University of Illinois Distinguished Alumnus Award.
George Trezek passed away on December 18, 2019. He is survived by Joan, his wife of 57 years, and their three children, Wendy Marie Trezek, Keith R. Trezek, and Cynthia Ann George (Michael), and four grandchildren, Jackson, Madelyn, Nicholas, and Andrew George, and is survived also by his brothers Norman and Michael. His memorial service was held at St. Isidore Church in Danville, CA, on January 3, 2020. George asked that any donations go to the mechanical engineering departments at U of I and UC Berkeley to help support women engineering students. “Both universities contributed immeasurably to whatever success I enjoyed,” Trezek said. He was a dear friend and colleague who is sorely missed.
Patrick Pagni
Boris Rubinsky
John Sargent
2020
Trezek received his B.M.E. in 1960 from the General Motors Technical Institute, now Kettering University, in Flint, MI. He chose that school because of its cooperative engineering program that combined academics with work experience and permitted students to pay their own way through college. George’s mother died when he was 16. The family had limited financial resources. He became partially responsible for the education and well-being of his two younger brothers. He obtained his M.S. (1962) and Ph.D. (1965) in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (U of I). His doctoral dissertation was supervised by Professor Shao Lee Soo, an international scholar in the thermal sciences. Former president of U of I, James J. Stukel, and Trezek were classmates and friends. George married Joan A. Arcieri on August 18, 1962; they had three children. Trezek was hired as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering by Northwestern University in 1965. In 1966 he was invited to join the faculty at UC Berkeley as an assistant professor. He became associate professor in 1970 and professor of mechanical engineering in 1974.
Professor Trezek took seriously the charge for engineers to develop science that serves people in a practical and immediately beneficial way. In 1969 he established the Waste Processing Laboratory at Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station with funding from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. This facility could receive packer truck quantities of waste, shred at a rate of ten tons per hour, and classify at a rate of two tons per hour. It allowed analyses of fundamental design considerations for comminution, which is the reduction of materials to particles or fragments. He published over 100 technical articles in a wide range of vital areas, including heat transfer, bioengineering, environmental engineering, solid waste management, heavy metals treatment technology, marine sediments remediation, and plastic recycling. Trezek pioneered the use of mathematical heat transfer models in cryosurgery for the treatment of cancer. Previously the field of cryosurgery had been exclusively populated by physicians. His breakthrough work opened the door for engineering researchers and led to advances that eventually saved thousands of lives. He was an early chair of the Biomedical Engineering Committee of the College of Engineering. In 1974 he received Pi Tau Sigma’s Outstanding Teaching Award.
Trezek encouraged his advisees toward larger goals than a degree. This was manifest in his occasional participation with students in postgraduate commercial ventures. He and his Ph.D. student John Sargent founded QMS (Quantitative Medical Systems) in 1976 to provide a capability for medical practitioners to use physiologic mathematical models. They connected global users to a central computer via telephonic links before the existence of the internet. This design was critical for QMS’s role in the National Cooperative Dialysis Study – NCDS – which examined dialysis treatment adequacy with 10 geographically diverse groups and was based on a mathematical model for urea, a product of protein metabolism. Using this networked capability, the study was conducted in real time and monitored centrally, which resulted in far better control of the study protocol than had previously been possible. It is likely that this was a first for dispersed collaborative clinical investigations. The study established quantitative guidelines for appropriate dialysis therapy.
In 1981, Trezek took a year’s leave of absence to go to the Philippines to develop a master plan for solid waste management for the Metro-Manila region, which had a population then of 8 million people. His activities were sponsored by the World Bank and the Philippine Government. He said that guiding the local engineers was in many respects akin to teaching. The project was a success. While on leave, he continued his UC research on carbon fiber and plastics recycling. In the 1980s, Trezek served the State of California on many committees related to hazardous waste management. Governor Jerry Brown thanked him for his membership in the Office of Appropriate Technology’s Advisory Committee on Alternative Waste Management Technologies. Congressman Ronald Dellums congratulated him for his six-figure EPA grant on how to handle carbon fiber composition materials in solid waste. Congressman George Brown lauded Trezek for his valuable work on the Stringfellow Hazardous Waste Site and called his case study a “landmark document.” State senator John Garamendi thanked him for being a task force member for the California Senate Select Committee on Long Range Policy Planning.
In 1990, Trezek retired as an emeritus professor. He became vice-president of Research and Development at Greenfield Environmental and director of Recycling Operations at BKK Corporation in Southern California. In 1996, he established the Trezek Group, which provided consulting services to private, state, and federal agencies on waste management issues. He holds U.S. Patent #5476994 for extracting metal contamination from sediments. His technique was used to help decontaminate San Diego Bay. He was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Society for Testing and Materials, the Society of Cryobiology, Tau Beta Pi, and Pi Tau Sigma and was an ASME International Life Fellow. In 2007, he received a University of Illinois Distinguished Alumnus Award.
George Trezek passed away on December 18, 2019. He is survived by Joan, his wife of 57 years, and their three children, Wendy Marie Trezek, Keith R. Trezek, and Cynthia Ann George (Michael), and four grandchildren, Jackson, Madelyn, Nicholas, and Andrew George, and is survived also by his brothers Norman and Michael. His memorial service was held at St. Isidore Church in Danville, CA, on January 3, 2020. George asked that any donations go to the mechanical engineering departments at U of I and UC Berkeley to help support women engineering students. “Both universities contributed immeasurably to whatever success I enjoyed,” Trezek said. He was a dear friend and colleague who is sorely missed.
Patrick Pagni
Boris Rubinsky
John Sargent
2020
