Today with Israel getting over 3/4 of its drinking water from desalination and with tenders being opened for two new major desalination plants, it is indeed appropriate that we today are marking the dedication of the archive of Sid Loeb's papers at the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research. Sid began his academic career and made his key contribution, to developing desalination membranes at UCLA where his discoveries and innovations formed the body of his Master's and doctoral theses. Sid's key contribution to developing reverse osmosis for desalination was based on keen observation and insight and his tenacity to meet and overcome the challenges in turning reverse osmosis desalination into a practical process. Sid put together the first practical desalination plant 54 years ago in Coalinga, California and followed four years later with the first reverse osmosis desalination plant here in Israel in Yotvata (the second plant in the world), for which we are close to celebrating 50 years since its installation. Sid was also an educator, serving for many years as a professor in the chemical engineering department at Ben Gurion University where he advised students and taught. As a visiting professor, he also taught in many places around the world. The archives include his theses, articles, research reports, correspondence, course notes and hand-written annotations on papers relevant to his work.
